By Felicia Persaud
This past week, in a haste to move ahead of the pack of Conservatives hoping to become the Presidential nominee for the Republican/Tea Party bloc, Michele Bachmann, began running an ad slamming fellow candidate Ricky Perry over his immigration record.
According to Tea Party-ite Bachman, Perry is too soft on immigration as evidenced by his “signing of a law to make taxpayers pay college tuition for illegal immigrants.” Keep Conservatives United, a pro-Bachmann political action committee, produced the 60-second radio spot, which began running on Tuesday, September 13th in Charleston and Columbia, S.C.
The ad is based on legislation that Texas Governor Perry signed in 2001, giving in-state tuition rates and financial aid to some students who are in the country without legal papers; much as happens in New York.
But in the ad, Bachmann’s supporters fire back: “Illegals take jobs. The difference is clear. To stop illegal immigration, support Michele Bachmann.”
The reality is that despite their hardnosed stance on illegal immigration, none of the candidates so far have any real solutions to the US’ dysfunctional immigration system and the presence of 11 million undocumented immigrants, many of whom are needed by small and large companies to fill a labor gap.
At their recent debate, all appeared vague, evasive, confused, contradictory and even laughable in some instances.
Case in point, Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, who said he opposes a border fence because it might prevent law-abiding Americans from withdrawing their savings and fleeing to Mexico in a crisis. LOL please!
Mitt Romney’s position is even more laughable. While he has said “we ought to have a fence” running the length of the border, he has also acknowledged that any fence would be highly porous and ineffective.
Others insist that the solution really lies in making the borders more secure. Yet the borders are the most secure that they have been in years; illegal crossings are at their lowest level in 40 years, rates of nearly all measurable crimes are down in border communities and deportation levels have skyrocketed under the Democratic Obama White House watch.
So while GOPers and their Tea Party base run around deriding the term “illegal aliens” – like it’s the dreaded end of time, the real message is they have no solution – they can’t fix the broken system, they don’t have the resources to round up and deport 11 million people; their own business base needs cheap labor and they cannot think of supporting an “amnesty” because heaven forbid, their conservative base, turns their back on them in rage due to the fact that so many, many of the 11 million are brown and black and that will simply darken the hue of the country further and lessen the power of this largely White base.
So what’s the bunch of GOPers/TeaPartyites to do? Continue to bash “illegal aliens” and each other; hide their heads in the sand about the real problem; and golly well, make sure to add a huge dollop of blaming Obama to that pot. After all, his father was an immigrant and his uncle and aunt can fit under the banner of “illegals” right?
Let the madness of the Republican Presidential campaign begin!
The writer is founder of NewsAmericasNow, CaribPR Wire and Hard Beat Communications.
