Republican Debate Gaffe: Former Senator Rick Santorum — “Governor Perry’s . . . provided in-state tuition for — for illegal immigrants. Maybe that was an attempt to attract the illegal vote — I mean, the Latino voters”
Watching the Republican Presidential candidates spar on immigration has become a favorite ImmigrationProf pasttime. The CNN/Tea Party Debate last night was entertaining, although the candidates probably did not wow Latino voters. For the full transcript, see Download Republican party debate transcript 0912011
Here is the portion of the transcript on immigration (pp. 34-38 of full transcript):
WOLF BLITZER: Welcome back to the CNN Tea Party Republican presidential debate. We’re here in Tampa. But we’re taking questions from across the country.
Let’s go to Cincinnati. Please identify yourself and ask the question.
QUESTION: Yes, what — what would you do — what would you do to remove the illegal immigrants from our country?
(APPLAUSE)
BLITZER: Senator Santorum, maybe 11 million, 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States. What would you do?
SANTORUM: I’ve said this from the very beginning. What — I’m the son of an Italian immigrant. I believe in immigration. I believe that immigration is an important part of the lifeblood of this country.
But what we have is a problem of an unsecure border. Unlike Governor Perry, I believe we need to build more fence. I need — I believe that we need to secure the border using technology and more personnel. And until we build that border, we should neither have storm troopers come in and throw people out of the country nor should we provide amnesty.
What we should do is enforce the laws in this country with respect to employers, and we should secure the border. And then after the border is secured, then we can deal with the problem that are in this country.
But I — I think it’s very important that we understand and we explain to folks that immigration is an important lifeblood of this country, something that I strongly support and something that we have to do legally if we’re going to have — have respect for the law.
BLITZER: Governor Perry, he mentioned you, so go ahead.
PERRY: Yes, sir. There’s not anybody on this stage that’s had to deal with the issue of border security more than I have, with 1,200 miles of — of Texas and Mexico. And our federal government has been an abject failure at securing our border.
(APPLAUSE)
We’ve had to spend some $400 million of Texas taxpayer dollars to send Texas Ranger recon teams down there. Strategic fencing in the metropolitan areas absolutely has a role to play.
But the idea that you’re going to build a wall from Brownsville to El Paso and go left for another 800 miles to Tijuana is just not reality. What you have to have is boots on the ground. You’ve got to have 450 Border Patrol agents trained up, 1,500 National Guard troops. You’ve got to have the aviation assets in the air putting real-time information down to the law enforcement.
We understand and know how to secure that border, but we can’t do it alone. And the federal government has to step up and do what their constitutional duty is, and that is to secure the border with Mexico.
(APPLAUSE)
BLITZER: Let me just take this quick question from Twitter, and then I want to stay on this subject. What are the candidates doing to attract the Latino voters? Go ahead, Senator Santorum.
The Santorum Family
FORMER SEN. RICK SANTORUM, (R-PA.), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, I mean, what Governor Perry’s done is he provided in-state tuition for — for illegal immigrants. Maybe that was an attempt to attract the illegal vote — I mean, the Latino voters. [bold added]
But you track Latino voters by talking about the importance of immigration in this country. You talk about the importance of — as — as Newt has talked about for many years, having English as the — as the official language of this country.
(APPLAUSE)
And I say that…
(APPLAUSE)
I say that as, again, my — my father and grandfather came to this country not speaking a word of English, but it was the greatest gift to my father to have to learn English so he could assimilate into this society.
We’re a melting pot, not a salad bowl. And we need to continue that tradition.
WOLF BLITZER, DEBATE MODERATOR AND CNN LEAD POLITICAL ANCHOR: Governor Perry, I’m going to move on to Governor Huntsman in a second, but you did sign legislation giving some illegal immigrants in Texas the opportunity to have in-state tuition at universities in Texas, explain what that…
GOV. RICK PERRY, (R-TX.), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: In the state of Texas, if you’ve been in the state of Texas for three years, if you’re working towards your college degree, and if you are working and pursuing citizenship in the state of Texas, you pay in-state tuition there.
And the bottom line is it doesn’t make any difference what the sound of your last name is. That is the American way. No matter how you got into that state, from the standpoint of your parents brought you there or what have you. And that’s what we’ve done in the state of Texas. And I’m proud that we are having those individuals be contributing members of our society rather than telling them, you go be on the government dole.
BLITZER: You heard some boos there. But go ahead, Congresswoman Bachmann, is that basically the DREAM Act that President Obama wants as well?
REP. MICHELE BACHMANN, (R-MN.), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Yes, it’s very similar. And I think that the American way is not to give taxpayer subsidized benefits to people who have broken our laws or who are here in the United States illegally. That is not the American way. Because the immigration system in the United States worked very, very well up until the mid-1960s when liberal members of Congress changed the immigration laws.
What works is to have people come into the United States with a little bit of money in their pocket legally with sponsors so that if anything happens to them, they don’t fall back on the taxpayers to take care of them. And then they also have to agree to learn the speak the English language, learn American history and our constitution. That’s the American way.
BLITZER: I’m going to bring Governor Huntsman here. But go ahead, Governor Perry.
PERRY I’m not for the DREAM Act that they are talking about in Washington D.C. that is amnesty. What we did in the state of Texas was clearly a states right issue. And the legislature passed with only four dissenting votes in the House and the Senate to allow this to occur.
We were clearly sending a message to young people, regardless of what the sound of their last name is, that we believe in you. That if you want to live in the state of Texas and you want to pursue citizenship, that we’re going to allow you the opportunity to be contributing members in the state of Texas and not be a drag on our state.
BLITZER: Hold on a second, Governor Huntsman, you also signed legislation in Utah that gave driving privileges to illegal immigrants. Was that a good idea?
FORMER GOV. JON HUNTSMAN, JR., (R-UT.), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, first of all, let me say for Rick to say that you can’t secure the border I think is pretty much a treasonous comment.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I didn’t hear that.
HUNTSMAN: Rick, we can secure the border. We can secure the border through means of fences, through technology, through the deployment of our National Guard troops, we can get it done. In fact, when the elected president of the United States, I would work with you and the other three border governors to ensure that through your law enforcement officials you can verify that that border is secure.
But I will tell you before Wolf here directs a question, they were given a driver’s license before and they were using that for identification purposes. And I thought that was wrong. Instead we issued a driver privilege card, which in our state allowed our economy to continue to function. And it said in very bold letters, not to be used for identification purposes. It was a pragmatic local government driven fix and it proved that the tenth amendment works. We believe in local fixes and solutions.
BLITZER: All right. Governor Romney, do you have a problem with either what Governor Huntsman did in Utah or Governor Perry did in Texas?
FORMER GOV. ROMNEY (R-MA.), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Yeah, with both, actually. The question began by saying how do we attract Latino voters. And the answer is by telling them what they know in their heart, which is they or their ancestors did not come here for a handout. If they came here for a handout, they’d be voting for Democrats. They came here for opportunity and freedom. And that’s what we represent. And that’s why we’ll win collecting support from Latinos across the country.
With regards to illegal immigration, of course we build a fence and of course we do not give instate tuition credits to people who come here illegally. That only attracts people to come here and take advantage of America’s great beneficence.
And with regards to giving driver’s licenses to people that are here illegally, that creates a patina of legal status. There are sanctuary cities in some parts of the country.
One of the things I did in my state was to say, look, I’m going to get my state police authorized to be able to enforce immigration laws and make sure those people who we arrest are put in jail, to find out they’re here illegally, we’re going to get them out of here.
We have to recognize that this is the party that believes in supporting the law. We’re going to enforce the law. We’re the party of opportunity, we’re also the party of legal law abiding citizens. And that’s something we’re going to attract people of all backgrounds.
PERRY: As I said it earlier, we basically had a decision to make. Are we going to give people an incentive to be contributing members of this society or are we going to tell them no, we’re going to put you on the government dole?
In the state of Texas, and this is a states right issue, if in Massachusetts you didn’t want to do that or Utah you didn’t want to do this, that’s fine. But in the state of Texas where Mexico has a clear and a long relationship with this state, we decided it was in the best interest of those young people to give them the opportunity to go on to college and to have the opportunity. They’re pursuing citizenship in this country rather than saying, you know, we’re going to put you over here and put you on the government dole for the rest of your life. We don’t think that was the right thing to do. And it’s working. And it’s working well in the state of Texas.
BLITZER: I know you want to respond, too, because he said that what you did in Utah was a mistake giving driving privileges to illegal immigrants.
HUNTSMAN: I think we can spend all night talking about where Mitt’s been on all the issues of the day. And that would take forever. But let me just say that all the Latino voters, Hispanic voters want is opportunity, can we say that? The greatest thing that we can do for the people in this country is — on illegal immigration is fix homeland security.
I mean, when are we going to have an honest conversation in this country about the root causes. We can’t process people. The H1B visa process is broken. We need to bring in brain power to this country to shore up our economic might. We need to bring in foreign capital to raise real estate prices as well.
We need a fixed Department of Homeland Security.
BLITZER: Thank you, Governor.
*************
Merrill Clark, an immigration attorney from New York, had the following observations. Senator Rick Santorum, Jon Huntsman, and Mitt Romney supported extending the border fence along the U.S/Mexico while Governor Perry opposed this “solution.” Governor Perry, in Clark’s view, “was surprisingly bold on standing up for in-state tuition [for undocumented college students]. He said he was proud of it.” Rick Santorum really stepped in it with Latino voters with the statement that Perry’s tuition position “Maybe . . . was an attempt to attract the illegal vote — I mean, the Latino voters.””
Clark also observed that Representative Michelle Bachman wants immigrants to come to this country with a “little bit of money,” even though this is effectively what the law requires. Bachman said that immigration worked very well until the 1960s. Immigrants from China, Japan, Mexico, and many other countries subject to a host of other racist immigration practices probably were not so impressed with the good old days of immigration. It was not clear what “mid-1960s” law she was referring to in which “liberal members of Congress changed the immigration laws,” but she presumably was talking about the Immigration Act of 1965, which removed the vestiges of the infamously discriminatory laws greatly restricting immigration from Asia to the United States.
I found it fascinating how immigration and Latinos were inextricably linked in the questions and responses. Are all immigrants Latino? Do all Latinos care about immigration? One might think so given the questions and answers. Clearly, not all Latinos are “illegals,” as Senator Santorum flubbed. Funny, how the stereotype of the Latino as a perpetual foreigner still pervades the national consciousness.
KJ