Sarah Palin: Americans Must “Learn From (Reagan’s) Mistakes” On Illegal Immigration

mediaite.com ^ | July 10th, 2010 | Frances Martel

[GonzoII]

Sarah Palin made an appearance on The O’Reilly Factor last night to test her mettle on one of the biggest issues in the political sphere today: illegal immigrants. Bill O’Reilly grilled her on specifics to finding a solution to the problem and, in her responses, Palin made it very clear that immigration may be the one substantive issue around which she has a tight grip. Palin was adamant that illegal immigrants should not be “rewarded the bad behavior” and continued along in this vein until O’Reilly stopped her, in a very similar manner to how he stopped Univisión anchor Jorge Ramos in a debate earlier this week, and asked for concrete reactions to the problem. Palin responded that she would like all illegal immigrants to register and that, in an ideal situation, “you deport them. you have to get them out of here.”

...snip

Palin then tried to harken back to the days of Ronald Reagan– who was in favor of amnesty– and O’Reilly once again challenged her. “He botched it,” O’Reilly told her. Surprisingly to some, she agreed.

Last night’s segment below:

[Paladin2]

I hate that Palin supports JUAN. That doesn’t necessarily make me a Palin hater.

[kabar]

but I think her speaking out on Fox, shows that she is making a clear distance from McCain on his previous efforts to give amnesty.

Distance? She supports the McCain position and amnesty.

Palin: “We won’t complicate it any more. Let’s keep it simple and let’s say, ‘No, if you are here illegally and you don’t follow the steps that at some point through immigration reform we’re going to be able to provide, and that is to somehow allow you to work. If you’re not going to do that, you will be deported you will be gone.”

Palin couldn't have made it clearer that she supports amnesty.

[kabar]

Palin supports amnesty. An amnesty will destroy this country with the stroke of a pen. I will never vote again for someone who supports amnesty. I held my nose to vote for McCain. Never again.

[Reagan Man]

>>>>>At least Reagan called it an amnesty.

Reagan called it "legalization". The IRCA of 1986 was part of a three prong effort to toughen US border security, punish employers who hired illegals with up to a million fine and to grant a limited number of illegals with citizenship. Reagan's emphasis was on illegal alien employment. Reagan understood, you stop hiring illegals and you stop the vast majority of illegal immigration.

Too bad the Dem's led by Teddy Kennedy had other ideas. Instead of 300K being granted citizenship, 2.7 million were given amnesty.

[klb99]

Good ideas.....ordinarily I’m not opposed to migrant workers who came, work a while then go home. However, with the shortage of jobs, I want every available job for Americans. I’ve got an 18 year old that shouldn’t have to compete with an illegal alien for a $10/hr job. If there are 500K illegals in AZ and only half are working, that’s 250K jobs taht Arizonans don’t have and don’t anybody say they are jobs Americans won’t do....there are NO jobs Americans won’t do. We built this country by hand.

[9YearLurker]

Go try and watch it again, Joe.

[9YearLurker]

Where has she specified the end of work date and that they then have to leave? (I’d be happy to read or listen to such specifics being articulated.) And with a practical unemployment rate already of nearly 20%? And if you believe people are getting forced out after that...

[Reagan Man]

You're right, Reagan didn't love amnesty. Reagan didn't support open borders and he stated many times, "A nation without borders is not a nation." If the GOP had remained in control of the Senate after 1986 election, the Democrats led by Fat Teddy Kennedy would never have had the opportunity to gut the enforcement and employer sanction funding provisions of the IRCA of 1986

[JLS]

“Close the border, start rounding up the illegals and send them back or put them in prison and the vast majority of illegals will leave. Anyone who does this will probably get the majority vote.”

I believe the way it works is you have to get a majority or at least plurality of the votes first, then you get to implement you policies, not that other way around, though Dims like the other way round via the courts.

[alicewonders]

You Palin haters shouldn't use the world reality.

I think the reason so many people avoid the Palin threads is because of comments like that. There's a lot of us that will vote for Sarah Palin over a liberal - but we aren't happy with her support of McCain over a more conservative candidate. It's a known fact that John McCain has done a lot of damage to the conservative cause.

Whenever someone voices a legitimate opinion on Sarah that doesn't fit the idealized portrait that Sarah Worshippers adhere to - they are called "Palin-haters".

Don't you all realize how silly that makes you look to the rest of us? It's a big, gigantic turn-off to those of us who don't choose to make Sarah (or anyone else, for that matter) a saint. To put anyone on such a high pedestal - is not being in touch with "reality".

[kabar]

Legalization is amnesty. The government estimated that 1 million would apply and the real number turned out to be 2.7 million.

Ed Meese: If this sounds familiar, it’s because these are pretty much the same provisions included in the Comprehensive Reform Act of 2006, which its supporters claim is not amnesty. In the end, slight differences in process do not change the overriding fact that the 1986 law and the recent Senate legislation both include an amnesty. The difference is that President Reagan called it for what it was.

And it was supposed to be a one-time amnesty.

[GeronL]

Reagan trusted the Democrats to keep their part of the bargain.

Big Mistake.

You can’t trust a Democrat, ever.

[moehoward]

"Actually delivering on the rhetoric is quite another thing."

She was pretty quick to stand up next to Brewer. THAT was a VERY good sign.

[OwatonnaNative]

All good points; but, an immediate deportation of 10+ million just won’t happen. Once we have a worker program in place political pressure will reduce the number of people granted work visa’s when our economy is struggling as it is now. That in the end makes those lower paying jobs available for citizens when they are willing to take them.

I am with those that would like to simple deport everyone but we have to keep in mind how the political battle will play out. Sarah Palin’s approach to me makes a lot of sense with that in mind.

[flat]

I could wile away the hours
Conferrin’ with the flowers
Consultin’ with the rain
And my head I’d be scratchin’
While my thoughts were busy hatchin’
If I only had a brain

[Cicero]

FWIW, Sarah is stuck between a rock and a hard place with McCain. She really does owe him for choosing her as his veep candidate and giving her that unique opportunity to present herself to the nation, even if his handlers abused her and even if he screwed up the campaign royally.

It forced her to work with an aisle-crossing maverick, a good friend of Teddy Kennedy, but he had already been nominated as the POTUS candidate. When she joined the team, it certainly improved the balance as far as a Veep possibly can.

She simply cannot say that she now repudiates McCain. But what she did, basically, was to appear in his support when he asked her to for a couple of days, and that was it. The rest of it is the malign press and her enemies trying to make something of this issue.

McCain is a loser who should be thrown out. But I think most conservatives can figure that out for themselves. Sarah’s influence should not be decisive in this case, since I hope most voters with any brains can figure all this out for themselves.

[plain talk]

Close the border, start rounding up the illegals and send them back or put them in prison and the vast majority of illegals will leave. Anyone who does this will probably get the majority vote.

throw them out. I don't want to pay for keeping them in prison. also go after businesses that hire them. Decrease the incentives enough and many will self-deport.

[BobL]

“She could have just said, close the border and enforce exisiting law, Bill, how hard is that?”

Yea, she is DEFINITELY trying to make this issue much more complicated than necessary. Your answer, as well as others are VERY EASY. Just say something to this effect:

“Seal the border, arrest anyone hiring illegals, end ALL government benefits to illegals and their kids, and send home the illegals that happen to get caught up in the justice system.”

At that point there would be no reason to stay here, and most would go home - and if they don’t go home, and don’t work, and don’t commit crimes, and don’t steal taxpayer money - who really cares if they stay?

[Reagan Man]

>>>>>Legalization is amnesty.

I never said it wasn't. I said that Reagan called it "legalization", not amnesty as you posted. And yes, it was meant to be a one time deal.

The more relevant point which you ignored entirely, was Fat Teddy gutting the IRCA of 1986 of its enforcement and sanction funding. This turned a limited grant of amnesty to an original estimate of some 300K into a blanket amnesty. A policy that continues to drive the open borders crowd till this day.

Reagan never envisioned the IRCA of 1986 as a blanket amnesty. Period.

[FreeReign]

No, Sarah Palin does not support amnesty of any kind. She wants to force people who are here illegally to register. If they don’t register she supports immediately expelling them. If they do register they become part of a work program that has a specific end date. At the end of that period they too must leave. I believe this is a brilliant strategy; it denies the left the opportunity to use sob stories about people being thrown out with out warning. It also allows the government to identify where these people live and where they work, making it easier to deport them when their work visa expires. That approach combined with a streamlining of the existing I9 process (enter everything into a database so you can cross reference SSN and names) so it can be used to identify people who are using fake identification documents and you have a solution to our immigration problem that is efficient, effective, and hard for the bleeding heart agitators on the left to attack.

Technically, having the illegal aliens register and stay, even if it is for temporary work, is still amnesty, and it does encourage more illegal immigration.

That said, yes it is easier to find them and deport them if they don't leave, after they have registered, and after their temporary work visa expires.