Well, that’s because it makes no sense. “Illegal immigrants” means they BROKE the federal law. So it makes no sense to say “it would be up to the states sas long as they did not break the federal law”.
Which is the real problem here — Cain’s answer just doesn’t make sense. Cain really needs to stop re-interpreting the questions asked of him, and just go ahead and answer the actual questions, rather than arguing about it.
It seems to me, purely in the context of what was in the initial post, that he’s basically saying he supports Arizona and Alabama’s attempts to do what the federal government currently won’t, and then when asked about states who would take the opposite, he’s simply saying, “Like I said, leave it up to the states, but not to the point where they are doing something that is against existing federal law.” If I’m right, I don’t know why he doesn’t just come out and say, “Nope. They can’t turn a blind eye or try to legalize them.”
I’m going to try not to hang on to Cain no matter what like some posters do for, say, Newt or Perry, but I’m hoping to find a way to make this work because Newt, Perry and Romney are so horrible and he seems like the best of the viable rest. :(