Donald Trump, who shot to the top of Republican presidential polls after calling immigrants from Mexico drug dealers and rapists, will have to move even further to the right if he wants to please the prominent anti-immigrant lobbying group Numbers USA.
The group’s leader, Roy Beck, wrote in a blog post that although he appreciated Trump’s “tenacious” comments about immigrants, the candidate “stumbled” when he offered a muddled plan for what Trump called a “merit system” to “work something out” for the undocumented immigrants who aren’t the “bad ones.”
As a result, Beck docked his candidate scorecard for Trump and repeated his praise for Scott Walker and Rick Santorum (the sole recipient of an “A” grade from the organization), who have been consistently extreme on immigration, even without Trump’s attention-getting bombast.
Trump on national TV and on the Arizona border stumbled and let himself get boxed into saying he would offer amnesty to the illegal aliens who aren’t the “bad ones.” He seemed to be defensive and trying to prove that he isn’t hostile to immigrants by also indicating he would like to see legal immigration increased.
But Walker — ambushed by an illegal-alien family brought to Iowa to confront him in front of the national press corps — refused to be intimidated, stood strong and unapologetic about the importance of the rule of law, and declined to concede an amnesty..
Rick Santorum in a long interview on PBS also resisted being trapped into talking about immigration issues in the paradigm the mainstream media prefers. Instead, he deftly turned the high-profile TV appearance into an appeal to set immigration policy to benefit workers and poor people.
William Gheen of Americans for Legal Immigration PAC also added Trump to his “blacklist” of “amnesty supporting” politicians in wake of the billionaire’s latest remarks. Gheen explained his decision to WorldNetDaily:
“After coming out strong for a secure border and bringing attention to illegal immigrant crimes against Americans, Donald Trump is now promoting his plan to change America’s existing immigration laws to create a merit system by which illegals currently in America can stay and eventually gain voting rights where they are expected to help Democrats dominate U.S. elections forevermore,” Gheen said.
…“Most Americans want to hear that America’s laws will be enforced, not make new laws or change the laws to accommodate the law-breakers,” he added. “Americans like us want a constitutional government, not a Republican dictator to take over for the Democratic dictator we have in power now. “
