Thread: Flake rejects comprehensive immigration fix

Flake rejects comprehensive immigration fix

by Dan Nowicki - Mar. 23, 2011 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic

For years, Rep. Jeff Flake was one of the most reliable Republican champions for comprehensive immigration reform.

Not anymore.

As his campaign for Arizona's 2012 GOP Senate nomination revs up, Flake is explicitly rejecting his past advocacy for far-reaching legislation that would secure the border, enact a temporary-worker program and give many undocumented immigrants a pathway to legal status.

"In the past I have supported a broad approach to immigration reform - increased border security coupled with a temporary worker program. I no longer do," Flake says in an immigration-policy statement that was expected to be posted on his campaign website as early as today.

"I've been down that road, and it is a dead end. The political realities in Washington are such that a comprehensive solution is not possible, or even desirable given the current leadership. Border security must be addressed before other reforms are tackled."

Flake's stark shift to a harder line is reminiscent of the right turn that Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., another one-time champion of immigration reform, took while campaigning for president in 2008 and for re-election to the Senate in 2010. As with McCain, Flake's moderate record on immigration is widely seen as a political liability in an Arizona GOP primary. Many Republican voters and conservative "tea party" activists strongly oppose any proposals they suspect could lead to what they decry as "amnesty" for illegal immigrants. Flake is the only Republican to announce his Senate candidacy.

Flake's new position echoes that of retiring Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., who negotiated an unsuccessful bipartisan immigration bill in 2007. Kyl recently used strikingly similar language to describe his current position against comprehensive reform. "I went down that road once, and it was a dead end," Kyl told The Arizona Republic in February.

Flake attributed his change of heart to Mexico's bloody drug war and his observations of "troubling" conditions along the border, not to statewide Republican politics. He reiterated the view that broader immigration reform is "a dead end" while stressing that he has consistently backed tougher border-security measures.

"For those who say that this is a late conversion, I've been supporting these border-security things all along," Flake told The Republic.

One national proponent of comprehensive immigration reform called Flake's retreat "disappointing, but also sadly predictable" given Arizona's heated immigration climate.

"It's kind of hard for him to walk away from this when he has his fingerprints all over the issue," said Angela Maria Kelley, vice president for immigration policy and advocacy at the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank in Washington, D.C. "It's not like he just gently engaged it - he was a full-throttle supporter of comprehensive reform. So it's hard for him to erase what in fact has been written in Sharpie pen."

Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/ ... z1HRP2Ux66

one can only hope that mr flake has really changed, but didnt mc cain say the same kinda thing when he was in the primary with Hayworth? and hasnt he changed back to the original McAmnesty

Originally Posted by jamesw62

one can only hope that mr flake has really changed, but didnt mc cain say the same kinda thing when he was in the primary with Hayworth? and hasnt he changed back to the original McAmnesty

Yep, that's exactly what has happened. Flake was just as strong an amnesty supporter as McCain. The two were peas in a pod on the issue. Mccain knew he couldn't get reelected in Arizona as an amnesty supporter and Flake knows the same thing. For political survival, Flake is being forced to make a temporary change in position.

The big question is, will Arizona voters take the same path they did when McCain did his temporary flip-flop? How does the old cliche go, "fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me."

Mar 23, 2011

Arizona Senate candidate flip-flops on immigration

12:51 PM
By Matt York, AP

Arizona Senate candidate Jeff Flake is changing his mind about the need for comprehensive immigration reform, telling a Phoenix newspaper that border security must now come first.

Flake's about-face on immigration is reminiscent of the evolution of GOP presidential candidate John McCain. For years, McCain supported a guest worker program and a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants already in the USA -- along with tighter border security -- but dropped that position when he was faced with a tough Senate primary in Arizona last year.

Flake, currently a congressman, told The Arizona Republic in a story published today that a broad approach to immigration is a "dead end."

"In the past I have supported a broad approach to immigration reform -- increased border security coupled with a temporary worker program. I no longer do," Flake told the newspaper.

Flake went on to say the "political realities in Washington" make a comprehensive approach to immigration impossible. "Border security must be addressed before other reforms are tackled," he said.

In 2007, Flake co-authored a comprehensive immigration bill with Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill. In an op-ed that Flake wrote about the bill that's posted on his congressional website, he singled out then-President George W. Bush for his broad approach to immigration. That year, McCain's attempt to push a comprehensive immigration bill backed by Bush died in the Senate.

Flake, first elected to Congress in 2000, is running to replace retiring GOP Sen. Jon Kyl in Arizona.

http://content.usatoday.com/communities ... ip-flop-/1

While I do see many people who in the past kinda went in favor of letting the border be open and have free movement...I see them so much more moving to securing the border and also to remove the illegals that have flooded into this country. I hope that Flake will stay true on the path of a no compromise removing of the illegals as well as a complete total securing of the border. Time will tell but then so will his actions.

Jeff Flake IS A FLAKE ! He's just trying to get re-elected He will do the EXACT SAME THING Mc LAME DID.... Talk tough On Illegal Immigration then a few months later say " WE NEED AN AMNESTY" Mc Lame just announced to the world two nights ago on "Greta" that "WE NEED COMPREHENSIVE IMMIGRATION REFORM " He did not even mention that phrase when he ran for re-election. Arizona bought It hook line and sinker.... DO NOT DO IT AGAIN !

Originally Posted by topsecret10

DO NOT DO IT AGAIN !

"YEAH!"

He just wants Kyl's seat in the Senate. Worked for McCain, he figures it will work for him. WRONG!

He will never earn MY vote!

I'd vote for Corn Flake before I'd vote for Jeff Flake. He is NOT getting MY vote!!!

Flake defends shift in immigration policy

15 comments
by Parker Leavitt - Mar. 25, 2011 05:53 PM
The Arizona Republic


Just days after announcing a significant shift in his immigration policy, Congressman Jeff Flake on Friday defended the shuffle while addressing business owners and political leaders in Gilbert.

Flake, who is running to replace retiring U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl in 2012, said escalating danger at the Mexican border and Washington's inability to pass comprehensive immigration reform prompted the change in stance.

The federal government must first use a "laser focus" to secure the border before it can "clean up what is here," Flake said at a Gilbert Chamber of Commerce luncheon. Flake also discussed hot-button issues such as the federal budget, healthcare and the Libyan conflict.

Previously, Flake had been a strong advocate of immigration reform including a guest-worker program and a plan to address immigrants who are already in the U.S. illegally.

Critics have labeled him "pro-amnesty," and fellow Republicans challenging him in recent primary elections promised to do what they said Flake wouldn't - secure the border.

Now, Flake said he now believes comprehensive reform can't occur unless the federal government regains public trust by addressing border issues more directly.

"I've always believed that the best way to tackle the situation is in a comprehensive manner," Flake "The reality is ... we've been down that road, and it's a dead end."

The border situation has changed substantially since the start of his first term in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2001, Flake said.

"I can tell you today, those crossing the border, there are virtually none who aren't tied to human smugglers," Flake said. Many immigrants carry drugs with them to pay for the cost of crossing the border illegally, he said.

While visiting the border city of Douglas recently, Flake said he witnessed a drug bust involving a "young woman" who was driving with two children, ages 8 and 6. The woman acted "fidgety" while coming through the port, and an agent inspected the car, finding 150 to 200 pounds of marijuana hidden in the vehicle, Flake said.

"The smugglers are now increasingly using women and children to mask what they're doing," he said.

The luncheon drew dozens of business owners as well as several town officials, including Gilbert Mayor John Lewis.

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