Gilmore on Immigration, Setting The Record Straight

Couple of quick links to disprove the absurd notion that somehow Jim Gilmore is for AMNESTY.  Now, I'm not going to say that Gilmore hold the exact same position as Bob Marshall, but many of his supporters have played the absolutist game where if you don't agree 100% with Marshall that suddenly makes you pro-open borders.  Its an ridiculous notion.  So here are some old articles from Gilmore's presidential campaign worth perusing to make my case.

Gov. Gilmore has signed a pledge from Americans For Better Immigration pledging to oppose amnesty for illegal immigrants:

AMERICANS FOR BETTER IMMIGRATION NO AMNESTY PLEDGE

I pledge to oppose any and all efforts to grant amnesty or any
measures having equivalent effect that would offer a path to
citizenship, permanent residency, or other long-term legal status to
foreign nationals who arrived into this country either illegally or by
legal visas and then illegally overstayed.
LINK

Then there is this, from Jim Bowden's blog:

WASHINGTON – Former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore, a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, today saluted the grassroots pressure applied to Senators that resulted in the Thursday derailing of a proposed immigration bill which would have given de facto amnesty to more than 12 million illegal immigrants.

“The American people, who have a very strong sense of right and wrong, knew from day one this bill was not what its sponsors said it was — and that it was the wrong solution for the immigration challenges facing our nation,” Gilmore said.

“And, finally as a result of a strong grassroots effort, enough Senators have seen the light to bring about the failure of the bill. Now it is important to keep the pressure on so this flawed legislation is not resurrected,” Gilmore said.

“This compromise immigration deal would have placed our national security at risk by granting amnesty to untold millions of illegal immigrants and our economic security at risk by providing those same illegal immigrants with entitlements costing American taxpayers trillions of dollars,” Gilmore said.

“This immigration sell out failed because the American people saw it for what it was from the beginning. The shame is that it took so many members of the U.S. Senate so long to understand the ramifications of their secretly negotiated handiwork,” Gilmore said.

Then this video from when Gilmore was running for President:



So while I won't challenge Bob Marshall on his views on immigration, the noise coming from his camp that because Gilmore isn't 100% in line with the Delegate doesn't mean he's "pro-Amnesty." The record is clear that Gilmore, in fact, is very much against amnesty and has said so over and over in both his campaigns for president and the US Senate.

Comments

[D.J. McGuire]

Please, Chris. John Podhoretz opposed Bush's immigration bill, and he's as pro-amnesty as they come.

The fact is, Gilmore supported (and has never disavowed) temporary work visas for "some" illegals. That's legalization without consequence - the definition of amnesty.

[Chris]

This is what I'm talking about . . . the zero-sum conservatism of the Marshall supporters. Gilmore couldn't put it more clearly in every single one of those examples I found, even on video where he says we have to close the borders.

Yet one position he takes, find some way to get some of the workers visas, erases everything else and makes him "pro-amnesty" when he has very clearly stated that he is not.

[Citizen Tom]

Chris, when Democrats say that the rich have gotten richer and the poor have gotten poorer under the Bush administration, why don't Republicans point to illegal immigration? The answer is that the Republican establishment supports bringing in the cheap labor. The Republican establishment also supports taxing the rest of us to pay for all the benefits illegal immigrants receive.

Gilmore is part of the Republican establishment. Instead of doing something about illegal immigration, Gilmore's issue is finding people to do the work Americans won't do. Got to find inexpensive workers for those corporations, don't we?

When we have an outstanding alternative like Marshall, we are foolish to consider voting for Gilmore. Marshall will work for us, not a bunch of greedy people who cannot see beyond their bank accounts.

[D.J. McGuire]

Interesting to note that you couldn't bring yourself to calling the "workers" illegal.

Again, lawbreakers suffer no consequence for their illegal action. That, by definition, is amnesty.