McCain Flip Flops on Immigration

By: Lowell
Published On: 9/19/2008 10:57:42 AM

Just like on almost every other issue (except for the Iraq war, where he's still down for 50, 100 years, whatever it takes), John McCain has flip flopped on immigration as well. Today, he's talking tough, but it wasn't always this way. For instance, here's what John McCain had to say about immigration back in 2004 (source: On the Issues):

Those who live closest are the ones who can get here. Everyone in the world should have the opportunity through an orderly process to come to this country.

Also:

When there's a demand, there's going to be a supply. There are jobs that Americans will not do, so we have to make it possible for someone to come to this country to do a job that an American won't do and then go back to the country from where they came.

And then there's McCain in 1998, when he believed in "[p]rohibit[ing] states from passing laws that deny human services to illegal immigrants or their children."

Finally, McCain was honored in 1988 by La Raza for opposing an "English only" measure (Proposition 106) in Arizona.  At the time, McCain asked, "Why would we want to pass some kind of initiative that a significant portion of our population considers an assault on their heritage?"

Today, we should ask ourselves, "Why would we want to elect someone who has flip flopped on almost every position he's ever held?"

Comments



The last thing we need to do is politicize this issue (relawson - 9/19/2008 11:06:47 AM)
I've never agreed on McCain's immigration position - because he sees immigration as a corporate subsidy and not a program to build future productive citizens.  It's about the exploitation of people for profit, and doesn't consider harm to American workers.

This is one of those issues that we need to let our conscience guide us - not politics.

As a self-professed Lou Dobbs fan (guilty of being populist) I don't think the best approach to this issue is a GUEST worker program.  GUEST worker is synonomous with EMPLOYER SPONSORED.  Which is synonomous with indentured servant.  

I believe that people like Lou Dobbs and other immigration hawks should focus on employER enforcement, not employEE enforcement.  It is the corporations who are acting like predators and using people the same way they use other livestock.  These are the people that need to be loaded on the buses and prosecuted for their crimes.  If it weren't for them, illegal immigrants wouldn't come here to begin with.

And John McCain is obviously just appealing to the base here.  He isn't letting his conscience guide him on this issue - he is allowing political winds to guide him.  Shameful.