Gingrich vs. Jordan -- He ignored her commission's recommendations

Gingrich vs. Jordan
He ignored her commission's recommendations

Tom Tancredo -- Politico -- December 2
Can GOP accept Newt's immigration policy?

Barbara Jordan: "...deportation is crucial. Credibility in immigration policy can be summed up in one sentence: those who should get in, get in; those who should be kept out, are kept out; and those who should not be here will be required to leave." [See testimony]

    Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich's immigration policies came to the forefront after he called for a "humane" stance on illegal immigration during the recent Republican presidential debate. He is now defending his statements and record on immigration.
    "I am not for amnesty for 11 million people." Gingrich said during a town hall meeting last Friday, "I'm actually not for amnesty for anyone." He insisted that he would be "very tough" on employers of illegal immigrants.
    However, Gingrich has long record of supporting amnesty at the behest of cheap labor lobbyists.
    His sorry performance goes back to 1986, when he voted for the Simpson-Mazzoli bill that ultimately granted amnesty to three million illegal immigrants.
    Gingrich later admitted this was a mistake. But he never learned from it. His backroom maneuvering as speaker destroyed the last serious chance of real immigration reform in 1995-96, after the bipartisan Jordan Commission recommended cuts in legal immigration and cracking down illegal immigration.
    The political scientist Aristide Zolberg notes, in "A Nation by Design: Immigration Policy in the Fashioning of America," that Gingrich opposed the legislation modeled after the commission's recommendations "after meeting with representatives of caterers, fast-food establishments and restaurant chains."