Thread: Governor's crackdown on illegals - please vote!

Please vote in this poll http://news.postbulletin.com/ (scoll down; on the left side)

Gov. Pawlenty has just come out with tough proposals to deal with our rapidly growing illegal immigration problem in Minnesota and he's taking a lot of heat from all the liberals. Of course they are trying to belittle his efforts by saying he's just doing this to get re-elected.

Posted on Wed, Jan. 04, 2006

Illegal immigration a 'real issue'
Pawlenty defends crackdown, but not all agr! ee with tactics
BY BILL SALISBURY
Pioneer Press

If you're an illegal immigrant, watch out. Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty wants to crack down on you and those who might employ you or provide you with false identification cards.
Warning that crimes associated with illegal immigration are a growing threat to public safety, Pawlenty on Tuesday proposed a variety of steps, including the creation of a statewide law enforcement team focused on immigration issues.
Waving a fistful of fake driver's licenses, Social Security cards and a phony passport at a Capitol news conference, the Republican governor said illegal immigration is a serious issue and challenged his critics who accused him of election-year politics.
"You'd have to be really living under a rock not to see this as a real issue," he said.
Many Democrats h! arshly criticized Pawlenty's proposal, saying he was exploiting an emotional issue to launch his 2006 re-election campaign. And members of immigrant communities expressed fear that Pawlenty's proposal would tarnish all immigrants and not just wrongdoers.
But some Democrats and some immigrants said the governor's proposals had merit and deserved debate, which will no doubt occur in March when the Legislature convenes.
"He's following a line from the Republican National Committee about what their wedge issue of the year is going to be. In 2004 it was gay marriage; this year it's illegal immigration," said Brian Melendez, chairman of the state Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party.
Another critic was Attorney General Mike Hatch, a DFL candidate for governor, who said the Pawlenty administration has failed for three years to enforce labor laws against employers that hire illegal immigrants.
"Now he's in a political mode," Hatch said.
But Senate DFL Majority Leader Dean Johnson said illegal immigration is a "very, very delicate issue" and called for a "thoughtful, strategic, public debate" on Pawlenty's proposals.
Minnesota employers need immigrant labor, Johnson said, and instead of focusing on "punitive" measures, as he said Pawlenty did, policy-makers should also look for ways to help them become "legal, law-abiding citizens."
The governor stressed that he isn't anti-immigrant.
This is a nation of immigrants, and "to be anti-immigrant is really to be anti-American," he said. "I am a strong supporter of immigration."
He said he wants to promote legal immigration while discouraging illegal immigration.
Pawlenty called for creating a Minnesota Illegal Immigration Enforcement Team of 10 state law enforcement officers who would be trained to question, detain and arrest suspected illegal immigrants. They would focus on aliens involved in such crimes as! human trafficking, identity theft, methamphetamine distribution and terrorism.
He said he would ask the U.S. attorney general for a memorandum of understanding that would give Minnesota law enforcement officers something they traditionally have not had â€â€

Is Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s recent attention to illegal immigration driven primarily by politics or by the seriousness of the issue?

He's trying to make political hay. 63 (34.81%)
He's focusing long-overdue attention on the issue. 118 (65.19%)