Opposition Notes Palin Wobbly On Immigration
02/07/2010
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I was looking for a transcript of Sarah Palin's speech last night, and didn't find one, but I did find this, from New American Media, a multicultural news service serving every ethnicity but regular Americans, which notes that the tea party movement are patriots on the subjects of immigration:
Tea Party Dabbles in Immigration Politics

New America Media, News Report , Marcelo Ballv?©, Posted: Feb 05, 2010 Review it on NewsTrust

The Tea Party movement has energized activism against President Obama’s vision for immigration reform.

The link between tea partiers and immigration politics developed last summer, when the impact of illegal immigration on the health care system became a prominent side issue in town hall debates.

Since then, illegal immigration has steadily gained ground on the Tea Party agenda.

Immigration ”is one of our main issues in the state of North Carolina,” said David DeGerolamo, co-founder of Tea Party group NC Freedom, in a phone interview. ”And what it comes down to is that the United States is a republic based on the rule of law. What part of illegal is right?”

Unfortunately, even New American Media notes that Governor Palin is not a firebrand on this issue, quoting Tamar Jacoby, of all people:
Tamar Jacoby, a conservative [VDARE.com note: Ha! ] who heads ImmigrationWorks USA, a pro-immigration business group, agrees that tea partiers may take up immigration in earnest in the future. But for the time being, she sees them still in an early stage of organizing and far more zeroed-in on limited government and fiscal issues.

And the Tea Party movement’s allies in the political establishment, Republicans like [Dick] Armey of FreedomWorks and former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, still have a chance to influence the course Tea Party activism will take on issues such as immigration, Jacoby said. ”Leadership will matter. What Palin and Armey say will be very important.”

Palin and Armey are hardly firebrands on the immigration issue.

Armey, as Jacoby pointed out, is an ”old friend” of immigration reform. Armey has spoken out about making the system ”more orderly” but ”not more restrictive.”

Palin’s position on immigration is still hazy. In a recent interview on the Glenn Beck program she said, ”I think Republicans, conservatives are at fault when we allow the other side to capture this immigration issue and try to turn this issue into something negative for Republicans,” she said, according to a Fox News transcript.

Palin stressed immigration laws should be followed, but added, ”We need to continue to be so welcoming.”

It's worrisome that Tamar Jacoby isn't worried about Palin, while Paul Streitz is.
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