Washington Times
By David Sherfinski
September 1, 2015
Wisconsin
Gov. Scott Walker’s comments about security concerns along the
U.S.-Canadian border have sparked a feverish backlash from Democrats and
immigrant rights advocates
who say the notion of a northern border wall is a preposterous idea.
Mr.
Walker’s comments were the latest in what’s become a push in the
Republican field to one-up one another on combating illegal immigration.
Mr. Walker in particular
has doubled down on trying to secure borders — and, in an appearance on
NBC’s “Meet the Press” this weekend, said that includes the northern
border, which usually draws less attention.
“Some
people have asked us about that in New Hampshire,” Mr. Walker said when
asked about security and the idea of a wall on the northern border.
“They raised some very
legitimate concerns, including some law enforcement folks that brought
that up to me at one of our town hall meetings about a week and a half
ago. So that is a legitimate issue for [us] to look at.”
Border
barriers have been a hot topic for years, but the debate got a
kick-start this summer when Mr. Trump said more fencing is needed on the
U.S.-Mexico line, and said
he would find a way to make Mexico pay for building it.
Sen.
Rand Paul of Kentucky, a 2016 GOP rival of Mr. Walker and Mr. Trump,
mocked both Mr. Trump’s idea and the notion of a northern border wall
Monday.
“There
have been a lot of dumb ideas put out … one that the Mexicans will pay
for the wall was probably the dumbest of dumb ideas, but putting a wall
up between us and
Canada is sort of a ridiculous notion,” Mr. Paul said on Boston Herald
radio.
Already,
about 650 miles of barriers have been built along the 1,933-mile-long
southern border. About 350 miles of that is pedestrian fencing, which
deters would-be crossers,
while the rest is made up of vehicle barriers, which stop cars and
trucks but do not deter foot traffic.
Vehicle barriers are generally used in remote desert locations where foot traffic is less common.
But
the 1,538-mile border between the Lower 48 states and Canada has almost
no fencing — and Sen. Patrick J. Leahy, a Democrat who represents
Vermont, with 90 miles of
that border, mocked the idea of building barriers, saying the ties
between the two countries have always been strong.
“Election
season always brings out crazy ideas, but this is one of the craziest,”
he said, adding for good measure that if his wife Marcelle’s parents
were still alive,
“they would say the same thing, but in French.”
“It
is disappointing, but not surprising, that yet another Republican
presidential candidate is using the border to score cheap political
points,” Mr. Leahy said.
Many
of the GOP presidential contenders have been forced to take stringent
immigration stands in response to Mr. Trump, who, in addition to
fencing, called for illegal
immigrants to be required to leave the country, and said he would try
to change the birthright policy that grants U.S. citizenship to almost
all babies born in the U.S., including to illegal immigrant mothers.
“It’s
sort of like everybody’s now competing to say, ‘Oh no, I’ll put ‘em in
camps,’ ‘Oh no, I’ll throw ‘em out,’ ‘Oh no, I’ll put everyone in jail,’
and ‘I’ll have an
electric fence, and I’ll do this,’” Mr. Paul said. “There are places
for walls in some of the big cities along the southern border, but we’ve
gotten into this sort of shouting match about who can build a bigger
wall … [and] now people are saying, ‘My wall
will be as big as the Great Wall of China. How big will your wall be?’”
Apparently
alluding to New Orleans, 2016 GOP contender and former Arkansas Gov.
Mike Huckabee tweeted on Monday: “Govt can build a massive sea wall to
keep out waves from
the ocean but we can’t build a wall to keep out waves of illegals?
#NoExcuses.”
Mr.
Walker, however, has seemed to search for stances. He initially said he
would try to end birthright citizenship, then backed off and said he
didn’t want to take a
stance until the border was secure.
His
campaign on Monday said Mr. Walker isn’t calling for a border fence
with Canada, but was instead signaling that he’s heard security concerns
about the northern border
that must be addressed.
Mr.
Trump said recently the northern border is a “much different kind of
situation” than the southwestern border and doesn’t need a wall.
“We
have to police it; we have to be very vigilant; we have to be careful.
But also the length — you’re talking about a tremendous length, a
tremendous distance,” Mr.
Trump said on Fox Business Network.
America’s
Voice, a leading immigrant rights advocacy, said Mr. Walker was the
latest entrant in the GOP’s “dumb and dumber approach on immigration.”
“Most
Americans connected to reality understand that immigrants work hard,
contribute to economic growth and are American in all but paperwork,”
said Frank Sharry, executive
director of America’s Voice. “Meanwhile, in the bizarre world of the
GOP primary, trumped-up canards add up to a spasm of nativism that will
doom the GOP’s chances in the 2016 general election.”
Speaking
Sunday on NBC, Mr. Walker maintained that what he’s been saying about
immigration — stressing a need to secure the border, enforce the laws
and put a priority
on American wages in discussing legal immigration — has been
consistent.
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
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