"Despite Los Angeles` Deeply Liberal Bent, The Crowd Was Sharply Divided" Over Amnesty, Because They Have To Live With The Illegals
07/28/2013
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Rep. Karen Bass meets with constituents to discuss measures being debated in Congress; the crowd is sharply divided. Bass sees little prospect for passage of 'comprehensive' reform bills in the House.

Karen Bass (pictured) is a black congresswoman who held a townhall in Los Angeles. She made sure to attack Steve King, and accuse Republicans of being secretly racist:

Immigration reform legislation, which has cleared the Senate but is being debated in the House, was highlighted in the news in recent days because of a controversial statement made by Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), who said most children who are in the country illegally are marijuana traffickers, not valedictorians. Politicians on both sides of the aisle denounced his statements, including top leaders of the Republican Party.

Bass said she thinks that the Republicans who denounced King's statements share many of his positions but express them differently.

"There is the crude and there is the sophisticated," she said. "At the end of the day, I think both opinions are pretty much the same in terms of the disrespectful viewpoint of immigrants."[L.A. town hall meeting exposes deep rift on immigration overhaul, By Seema Mehta, Los Angeles Times, July 27, 2013]

She's wrong—most Republicans are far too respectful of illegal immigrants, and need insensitivity training. By the way, LA Times reporter Seema Mehta's description of what King said deserves some kind of a prize for combined inaccuracy and point-missing.[Email Seema Mehta]

But it turns out that the people who have "disrespectful viewpoint of [illegal] immigrants" are actually Bass's own constituents—who aren't monochomatic Iowa Republicans like King, but black Democrats like her:

About 300 people attended the meeting, and despite Los Angeles' deeply liberal bent, the crowd was sharply divided over what should be done with the millions of people who are living in this country illegally.

....

Several spoke out against a pathway to legalization, saying it would reward those who broke the law by entering the country illegally. Others pointed to the economy and unemployment and argued that the job prospects of Americans — particularly African Americans — would be harmed.

Keith Hardiner, 57, said he is the descendant of slaves.

"They were separated from their families, but we had to fight and struggle," said the Silver Lake resident. "And now I feel like we are being set back and the country is being kind of stolen from us."

That's because his Congressional representative is more interested in attacking white Republicans than protecting her constituents.

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