Republicans Debating Immigration
Most of you will read this post the morning after the debate among gubernatorial candidates. There will certainly be lots of accounts out there.
First off, UNC-TV did well by us scruffy media types hosting the thing, providing wireless access in the building and all that. So thanks to them.
This post will cover the GOP candidates, who went first Thursday night.
The Republicans - former Supreme Court Justice Bob Orr, Salisbury lawyer Bill Graham, and state Sen. Fred Smith - recycled a lot of their material from prior debates. I think there were a few new wrinkles here and there, but the bulk of what came up in their portion of the program I'd heard before.
I did find one part of the debate pretty interesting. The candidates were asked about immigration policy. Smith and Graham were pretty hard-line. Each gave a nod to the whole "nations of immigrants" concept, but their answers had more to do with law and order.
Orr also said that immigration laws needed to be enforced. But he was the only one to say that a lot of our state's businesses were using illegal labor and that their needs had to be taken into account.
Quotes and audio:
- * Smith: "We're a nation that needs to protect our borders... We've got a governor and president of the community college system that's picking and choosing which laws they want to enforce." Click here to listen to his full remarks.
- * Graham: "We have hundreds of thousands of illegals in our state. It's putting pressure on hospitals, it's putting pressure on schools, it's putting pressure on our infrastructure. We are a nation of laws and when people come to America they come here and expect we obey the rule of law...we have to insist they obey the rules."
Click here to listen to his full remarks. - * Orr: "The reality is that many of our large farmers, both in the east and tree farmers, Christmas tree farmers in the west, construction industries are using illegal immigrants in their workforce ... We've got to work on improving those programs that provide for legal immigrants to come to the United States to work."
Click here to listen to his full remarks.
