Thread: McCain & Giuliani see illegals as citizens

Two GOP hopefuls see some illegals as citizens

http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbc ... 00060/1001

By Stephen Dinan
December 10, 2007

CORAL GABLES, Fla. — Sen. John McCain and former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani stood alone among the Republican presidential candidates in last night's Spanish-language debate in calling for some illegal aliens to be granted a path to citizenship.

"None of us have been perfect — all of us have been struggling with this for a long time," Mr. Giuliani said, summing up the flip-flops most of the top-tier Republican candidates have made on the issue during the presidential campaign.
Video: GOP Candidates Praise Hispanics

He and Mr. McCain said that after the border is secure, the illegal alien population can be addressed, with some being allowed to stay.

"The people who want to come forward should be allowed to come forward," Mr. Giuliani said.

But the other candidates said that doing so would be a disservice to those waiting in line at home and called for illegal aliens to go home and re-enter the U.S. legally.

"We have to enforce our borders and we have to uphold our law," said former Sen. Fred Thompson, while former Gov. Mitt Romney called for illegal aliens "to get in line with everybody else, but there should be no special pathway."

Immigration dominated the 90-minute debate, and the moderators for Univision, the Spanish-language network that sponsored it with host University of Miami, said 85 percent of the questions submitted to their Web site for this debate were about immigration.

Immigration also has dominated the Republican primary campaign, with candidates being peppered at campaign stops about how they would handle both border security and the estimated 12 million to 20 million illegal aliens in the U.S.

Republicans didn't alter their positions for their Hispanic audience last night, but they didn't mix it up much either. Gone were the pointed exchanges over who would be the toughest on illegal aliens that characterized the last debate.

And the candidates also ducked some of the more difficult questions.

Asked specifically about citizen children being separated from illegal alien parents after work-site raids, none of the three candidates to whom the question was addressed answered it.

Mr. Romney, of Massachusetts, and Mr. Thompson, of Tennessee, spoke about birthright citizenship for those born here, while Mr. McCain, of Arizona, blamed the separations on Congress' failure to pass a bill.

"The message of our failure is they want the border secured first, and we must secure the border first, and then we move on to all of these other issues," he said. "Once we secure the borders, I'm convinced the American people will proceed with issues like this in a humanitarian and compassionate fashion."

Mr. McCain said his fellow Republicans' harsh tone on immigration has cost his party support among Hispanic voters.

"I think some of the rhetoric that many Hispanics hear about illegal immigration makes some of them believe we are not in favor nor seek the support of Hispanic citizens in this country," he said.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said the problem lies in Republicans' outreach and with attitudes that he said come with the large number of illegal aliens.

"It's a terrible thing when a person who is here legally, but speaks with an accent, is racially profiled by the public," he said.

Rep. Duncan Hunter, California Republican, said Hispanic voters should examine Republicans' record when it comes to freedom in Latin America. He said it's better than the Democrats' record, which he said is embodied by President Kennedy's handling of U.S. forces during the Bay of Pigs invasion.

"A Democrat administration let their aircraft carrier sit there, while those freedom fighters were machine-gunned," said Mr. Hunter, the top Republican on the House Armed Services Committee.

The moderators asked the questions in Spanish, and they were translated into English for the candidates, who answered in English. Those answers were then translated for the television audience.

The studio audience shouted and booed Rep. Ron Paul of Texas when he said he would talk to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

"We create the Chavezes of the world, we create the Castros of the world," Mr. Paul said.

Mr. Giuliani, of New York, told Mr. Paul he was wrong, adding, "I actually agree with the way King Juan Carlos spoke to Chavez."

At a recent meeting the Spanish monarch told Mr. Chavez, "Why don't you shut up?"

Though the candidates were not supposed to speak in Spanish, Mr. McCain worked some in when he said he also agreed with what the king told Mr. Chavez and repeated it in Spanish: "Por que no te callas?"

As has become standard, Mr. Huckabee had the best zinger of the night, objecting to filmmaker Michael Moore's portrayal of Cuba as having better health care than the U.S. "I don't mind shipping him down there, but the rest of us I'd like to get health care right here," he said.

He also won guffaws when he said the solution on education was "weapons of mass instruction."

Not taking part in the debate was Rep. Tom Tancredo, Colorado Republican, who boycotted the event in protest of the Spanish-language format. He said the debate only would further the "balkanization" of the U.S. and said it didn't make sense to debate in Spanish when the citizenship test requires a demonstration of English ability.

But the candidates defended the debate as a chance to reach out to an audience of Americans.

"I think the great risk is not so much that we would come. The far greater risk is if we didn't," Mr. Huckabee said, adding that would have been an "insult" to both Republicans and Hispanic voters.

"I think the great risk is not so much that we would come. The far greater risk is if we didn't," Mr. Huckabee said, adding that would have been an "insult" to both Republicans and Hispanic voters.

I could have sworn that ALL the republican candidates, except McCain, said NO when first asked to participate in the Univision debate. Huckabee flip flops like a fish out of water And, so does the rest. None of these candidates can be trusted. When I listen to them, both republican and democrat, it reminds me of a bunch of car salesmen.

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