Baltimore Immigration Lawyer: Christie’s Nuanced Immigration View
Potential presidential candidate Chris Christie provided the GOP field with a nuanced take on the immigration issue that is sure to turn off the primary voters. As polls and commentators have suggested in the past, GOP primary voters are often to the far right. Any form of amnesty is a no-no. Just ask Marco Rubio who once spent months preparing and sponsoring a comprehensive immigration bill with a path to citizenship that he later abandoned under conservative pressure and now espouses the far right’s position on the issue.
As a result, it is interesting the Chris Christie has chosen not to pander to the right. In the speech reported in USA Today, he stated that,
“Walls can be gotten over. The reason people come here is to work. So if we clamp down on folks who are hiring people in this manner, once we set up a fair system that everybody is signed on to, then I think we’ll really decrease.”
It is no surprise that the answer receive what the paper termed as a tepid response. However, it is a welcome addition in the conversation as the rhetoric of the GOP primary which can be pretty bellicose toward illegal immigrants. Jeb Bush also has a differing view on immigration than the far right. We all remember Mitt Romney twisting himself like a pretzel from his original views to declaring he supported self-deportation in order to get the far-right to vote for him in the primaries. While it cannot be said it is the reason he lost, this issue dealt with a wide ranging view that he was not authentic and was just saying what needed to be said to get the vote.
Furthermore, his comments on securing the border is also a welcome addition. Before his comment it appears that the secure the border first crowd had acquiesced to the idea that they cannot fathom this country doing more than one thing at a time. Secure the border while passing comprehensive immigration reform. My suspicion is that by insisting on securing the border first you can put off reform for lets say forever because such a long border may never be truly secure. The amount of resources required to do so is significant. For Republicans who want small government that is a whole lot of spending to build and maintain a secure border.
It is unlikely Republican Primary voters will challenge the candidates echoing their favored position, but the general electorate may. If the Republican nominee has to tack hard right on immigration, it will be difficult to woo hispanics in the general. The rise in the number of Hispanic voters means that they cannot be ignored and Republicans have historically required a decent percentage of the vote to win presidential elections.
It is still early and most republicans running for president have not declared, but we are getting a preview of the issues which are only going to get hotter as we enter the silly season. There will be plenty of whoppers and some surprisingly nuanced view points. Stay tuned.