Gilmore’s immigration policy: amnesty by another name

The illegal immigration issue has crashed into the Republican Senate campaign now that Tom Tancredo has endorsed Bob Marshall.  As one would expect, the Gilmore people were quick to insist that their guy is just as tough on illegals, but Tancredo refuted that:

“Jim Gilmore says he’s against amnesty, but he has a long record that suggests otherwise,” Tancredo said. “Less than a year ago, while campaigning for the presidency in Iowa, I witnessed Gilmore give a speech supporting a policy that sounded like amnesty to me.”

Naturally, that intrigued me, and more than a few other people, so I did some digging to try to find out the speech to which Tancredo referred.  I could find only one joint appearance for Tancredo and Gilmore – the Des Moines Lincoln Day Dinner.  So, I listened to Gilmore’s speech, and what should I hear at the 12:50 mark but this:

People who come here illegally have got to come in and register in some way, but we cannot have a path to citizenship.

In other words, after breaking the law, and “jumping the queue” – as my Canadian friends would put it – all that illegal aliens must do is “register in some way.”  That they can’t become a citizen is nice, but it is not the same thing as saying they can’t become legalized.

In fact, a week prior to the speech, Gilmore gave a more detailed explanation of what “register in some way” meant (from Riley at Virgnia Virtucon, emphasis added):

“Illegal aliens must be identified and required to register, “Gilmore said. “After registration, only those who pass background checks and have sponsors may be considered for temporary work visas, but none of them should be considered for citizenship unless they return home and they are allowed to reenter the country legally.”

Greg L over at Black Velvet Bruce Li provides a detailed list of the consequences of this fiasco, but suffice to say, under Gilmore’s plan, a large number of the illegal aliens would merely have to register and find a sponsor to become legalized, with no consequences whatsoever.

There is a word for that kind of policy, and that word is spelled A-M-N-E-S-T-Y.

As Greg says, “no wonder that Tom Tancredo sees Jim Gilmore as an advocate of amnesty for illegal aliens.”  Indeed.

By contrast, here is Tancredo’s view of Marshall (Wa Po Blog):

“We can trust Bob Marshall to oppose amnesty for illegal aliens. In the House of Delegates, Bob has a strong record of doing what he could on the state level to stop illegal immigration.”

I’d say the choice is clear.

Cross-posted to the right-wing liberal