Thread: NM: Guv candidates share views on Arizona immigration law

Guv candidates share views on Arizona immigration law

By Heath Haussamen • 4/27/10, 7:59 am

NMPolitics.net asked New Mexico’s six candidates for governor what they think of Arizona’s new, controversial immigration law. Here’s what they had to say:

Allen Weh
Republican Allen Weh said Arizona’s law “compels us more than ever to enforce existing law, or risk becoming an even bigger magnet for illegal immigrants and criminals.â€

AZ's immigration law polarizes NM politics

Posted at: 04/26/2010 6:15 PM | Updated at: 04/27/2010 8:42 AM

By: Stuart Dyson, Eyewitness News 4

Arizona's immigration law is impacting New Mexico politics, where a new campaign ad for governor is scorching the airwaves.

"Criminals take advantage of weak laws," says the ad endorsing republican candidate for governor, Susana Martinez, "like giving drivers licenses to illegal immigrants-- as governor that will change."

The ad began airing while civil rights activists held big protests in Arizona, denouncing the new law as an unconstitutional attempt to allow police to use racial profiling to target Hispanics.

Governor Bill Richardson called the law "terrible" on CNN over the weekend, saying he also believes it could lead to racial profiling.

State Rep. Al Park, an Albuquerque Democrat, agreed with the Governor. "We've got a lot of people here who are U.S. citizens who still speak with a spanish accent," said Park. "I'd be concerned if they were detained. These are citizens of the United States -- they have constitutional rights."

State Rep. Larry Larranaga, a Republican and a Hispanic, said the fears are unfounded. "Anybody who's here legally or documented here as being a worker will not have an issue with that," Larranaga said. " The people who will have an issue are people who are undocumented here, illegally here in the United States."

Both state lawmakers agree that there isn't enough support in the New Mexico legislature to pass anything like the Arizona law.

"This is a very different community than you'll find in Arizona or Texas," Park said. "It's really one that's built on multiculturalism."

"That doesn't mean that people have to come in and break the law in the United States so we can embrace diversity," Larranaga said. "We embrace diversity with people who are legal."

The New Mexico legislature passed a bill in 2003 that allows illegal immigrants to obtain drivers licenses. Governor Richardson signed it into law.

http://www.kob.com/article/stories/S153 ... ml?cat=504

I'll pick Weh

HEY GUYS - THAT MEANS THAT ILLEGALS CAN GET "LEGAL DRIVERS LICENSES" IN NEW MEXICO AND DRIVE RIGHT TO YOUR STATE -

NOTHING LIKE AIDING AND ABETTING FEDERAL LAW BREAKERS!

I SAY WE "BOYCOTT" NEW MEXICO FOR PUTTING THE REST OF THE NATION IN DANGER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!