Posted on 05/15/2010 9:10:45 PM PDT by jerry557
Attorney General Bill McCollum has had a dramatic change of heart on Arizona's new immigration law. Here's what he said on April 27: "I think Arizona has its own unique problems. I don't think Florida should enact laws like this -- quite that far out.'
Now he says some amendments to the law -- which failed to mollify most critics, including, apparently, former Gov. Jeb Bush -- have made it palatable, and that he would support a similar measure in Florida.
McCollum's statement:
As state and local law enforcement officials in Arizona begin to implement the states aggressive new border security law to crackdown on illegal immigration, I applaud Governor Brewer and the Arizona Legislature for stepping up their enforcement efforts at a time when President Obama's administration has let states down.
I support Arizona's law as amended, and if the federal government fails to secure our borders and solve the problem of illegal immigration, I would support a similar law for Florida.
Arizona leaders recently made needed changes that address concerns I had that the law could be abused and misused to perform racially profiled stops and arrests.
I do not support any measure that would result in racial profiling or other unintended consequences for law abiding American citizens.
Here in Florida, my Attorney General's office worked with state and local law enforcement agencies to reach agreements with the Department of Homeland Security to increase the number of Florida officers trained to enforce immigration laws and expand the scope of their authority.
While these efforts continue, the Obama Administration is not providing enough resources and officers to enforce federal immigration law.
President Obama and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano have shortsightedly failed to address serious border security issues, and now states carry a greater burden to keep our cities, streets and citizens safe.
As Attorney General and as Florida's next Governor, I am committed to advancing new and aggressive initiatives to keep Florida secure.
YES WE SHOULD
get Crist out and go for that bill,
he is certainly getting my vote and my money
Nice. He should have been FL Senator until the Bushes sabotaged him for M(N)arco Mel Martinez.
Why did you quit in the middle of the night Mel? Cartel issues? Antonio Montana?
EVERY STATE SHOULD.
Better: Enforce our border or else ...
tax payers of a state need not send in money to the federal government.
I’d vote for that law!
just noticed this is the palm beach rag which is probably trying to get hispanics down in the south to vote against him
well up in the north here we want this bill
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Better yet:
Florida should verbatim copy Mexico’s immigration laws.
Stricter than hell, and bulletproof against mexican illegals complaining and bitching “We’re just treating illegals like you do in Mexico.”
McCollum should have said this from the beginning. But, better late than never. I’m looking at you Rick Perry.
Sounds like McCollum is running for reelection.
He just misread the public sentiment before, otherwise his earlier statement would still stand.
You, and several million of your closest friends.
It makes more sense that state and locals do this. Even if the feds wanted to provide interior enforcement, the state and local authorities are the folks who are most likely to have contact with illegals. The feds don’t do traffic stops, check disturbances, etc.
I hope they all go to sanfrancisco.
I don't think McCollum was late supporting this. He just didn't support the law until Governor Brewer signed the revisions that totally eliminated any possibility of racial profiling. I remember watching McCollum a lot on C-SPAN when he was in D.C., and he always struck me as one of the most impressive and intelligent Republicans. He still does.
I agree that these measures are more readily enforceable by state and local officers. What frightens me, is that I’m not sure that closing the border is actually possible. I grew up about a mile from the border in southern New Mexico, just outside of El Paso, TX. And while Silvestre Reyes did manage to close down the border along the river for a while (depriving everyone of their gardeners and housekeepers ;)), I don’t think it was sustainable, and I don’t think a wall out in the desert near our farm would really have stopped anyone.
I’m scared that this is going to turn into the equivalent of the war on drugs, unwinnable and really costly. ;(
manc you are in Fla.
ask some LEGAL immigrants how they feel about ILLEGALS and many if not most do not like it one bit.
Welcome to FR, TexNewMex!
Egypt built a wall. Israel built a wall. Both have worked quite well. ...The solid walls built along the Southern US border have forced the illegals, drug & human traffic to seek other routes. ....Until we complete the walls along the border, we will not be able to stop such an influx of illegal goods, aliens and terriorists. Video cameras or UAVs spotting the people are useless... like video at ATMs, since they don’t prevent anything.
The idiots in the Texas Congress who represent the districts along the Mexican border are opposed to a solid fence, and it should be noted that most have hispanic surnames and depend on the votes of the folks from Mexico.
Rick Perry is up for re-election this year and is a spineless wimp on the issue of illegal aliens because he wants their votes or those of their legal relatives. I REALLY hope his stance to NOT support a Texas law like that of Arizona’s will change, or we may end up with a Dem Governor who supports sanctuary for illegals.
Sorry to rattle on for so long, but I have strong feelings on this issue.
Thanks for the welcome Thi!s is such an amazing community, and it took me a long time to gather the courage to speak up. ;)
I also really hope that a solid wall will prove more effective. My memories of growing up around El Paso, watching people cut the chain-link fences with wire cutters, paddle across the Rio Grande on inner tubes, etc., make me a bit skeptical. To be fair, in one sense El Paso and other cities right on the border are (or were) slightly unusual because illegal aliens would come across daily, work, and return home, or live with the employer family until the end of the week. I suppose they were almost more like “guest workers” than “permanent drains on social services”. And of course, when I was a child everyone we knew in our middle-class neighborhood employed Mexican housekeepers, gardeners, and sometimes handymen or nannies. Looking across the river at people living right next to you but in such vastly different and appalling conditions may have given us a different relationship, one that I think of as very patronizing, but also affectionate and symbiotic (sounds unpleasantly familiar, doesn’t it?). ;(
It sounds so terrible now, but as a kid it was just the way things were. Hope I’m not offending you. ;)
Wait, I just remembered what you said about the Texas Congressmen — isn’t Silvestre Reyes there??? He was in charge of the Border Patrol in EP for a while and ran a really effective operation that at least temporarily shut down immigration across the border. (Boy, were my parents and their friends mad!) Then Reyes ran for the state legislature, I think. I’d be really surprised if he didn’t favor a strong fence; I’ll have to look up his position. At the time I really respected him and found him intelligent and seemingly honest (I know, I know,...). ;)
I am indeed here and yes I was an legal immigrant until I became American and I hate how illegals come here
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