For Immediate Release Contact: Douglas Moore
October 3, 2006
(478) 742-1100
COLLINS MISQUOTES HIMSELF
Tries to hide his Amnesty Plan on his own website
(Middle Georgia) – In a release distributed widely to members of the press, Mac Collins’s campaign manager, Ted Prill, makes several statements which he claims “prove” that Mac doesn’t want to allow illegal immigrants to continue working in the United States. Unfortunately for Mac, he’s been caught on tape – by his own campaign.
Mac’s First Rebuttal
Jim Marshall’s False Source One:
Marshall cites a 04/05/2006 CNN Interview which Mac Collins never gave. In fact Mac Collins has not even given an interview to CNN this year.
The Truth
Sorry, Mac, that’s just not true. For the record, CNN was not cited in the ad. The provided cite is “QNN, 4/5/2006,” not “CNN, 4/5/2006” and we discovered it on Mac’s own website. The link on Mac’s website is now dead, but the QNN website (http://qualitynewsnetwork.com/2006intv.htm) still has the interview. Follow this link to listen to the interview: http://qnninterviews.com/2006cand/MC08GA.mp3
In the interview, Mac says:
Collins: “Well, I think the House made a good move back in the latter part of last year when they moved to secure the borders, and that’s were you have to start. You have to stop the flow. If you don’t shut off where they can make those routes across the border and put them through the port of entry then you’re not going to ever get a handle on immigration. Once you ever do that…once you ever secure these borders then you’ve got to sort out whose here, why they’re here, what they’re doing here, whether they are by themselves or have their extended family here, and their status, are they here on a visa or are they here illegally. One of the first places I think you ought to start is with those who are incarcerated and you know are criminal, whether there are here legal or illegal they need to go back home. Then you need to look at who’s performing a job, who’s doing work that may be hard to get someone else to do, and the best place to go to find that information is through employers. Do a census through the employers of who’s here, their status, not so much the employer knows, but the INS can determine. Then you go from there on who would be issued some type of temporary work visa, and I think two years is plenty long enough to issue a visa.”
Mac’s Second Rebuttal
Jim Marshall’s False Source Two:
Marshall cites a 04/06/06 Kiwanis Club speech in Moultrie where Mac Collins never called for amnesty. Mac discusses his idea for a two year work visas for needed foreign workers (example H2H farm workers) and then Mac states: “then they need to go back.” Watch the video by clicking here:
The Truth
Sorry Mac. Clearly you’re hoping that reporters don’t watch the video, because you doctored the transcript. In his release, Mac claims that he never called for amnesty and claims that he said “then they need to go back.” But, the truth is that he didn’t say that. In actuality, Mac says:
I really think what you’re going to have to do is sort through and find out who’s here, what kind of job they do, are they providing a good service, are the employees satisfied with the work they’re getting from them, do they need them. And then you determine then who’s going to stay based on some input from the employers, because they have to keep them working if they have employment for them. And I think two years is enough. I think a two year work visa is enough. Then they could come back. [Emphasis added]
Furthermore, they intentionally mislead reporters about the context of the Mac’s response. There’s nothing in the question and answer session about H2H farm workers (any farmer would tell you it’s H2A since there’s no such thing as an H2H visa). Mac is responding to a question about illegal immigration, and Mac clearly says in his answer that he favors allowing illegal immigrants to remain here for two or three years, and they can come back again, and again and again – and that’s amnesty, Mac.
Here’s a link to the video, followed by the transcript of the Q&A on illegal immigration:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3212102689709384550
Moultrie Kiwanis Speech, from 13:07-17:07.
Questioner 3: “You mentioned earlier Mac about the immigration legislation that is out there now, and I know that there are 11 million illegals in that range. What do you see happening with this legislation in current form? What are the potential solutions to that that you see?
Collins: “Well I, the debate is how long you going to let….what is the cut off date on how long someone’s been here before you let them stay here. And then those that are under that period of time, what are you going to do to send a certain group of those back and let them have to come back and apply? I think that has a lot of merit. I’m concerned about anyone who’s been here five years and let them just stay because they’ve been here five years, they’ve been here five years illegal. I really think what you’re going to have to do is sort through and find out who’s here, what kind of job they do, are they providing a good service, are the employees satisfied with the work they’re getting from them, do they need them. And then you determine then who’s going to stay based on some input from the employers, because they have to keep them working if they have employment for them. And I think two years is enough. I think a two year work visa is enough. Then they could come back.
Questioner 3: “Well do you see the border…??……20,000 a day coming it or whatever that is supposed to be coming in, is that part of it I guess?”
Collins: “Well the first thing you do is seal your border. And try to put… And I think the minutemen volunteering down on the border has shown if you are there, they’re going to look for another place to cross. And if we have another border … enough border patrol, that was part of the provision, or one of the provisions, in the bill that passed the House and is now part of the debate in the Senate too, uh, adding a lot more border patrol, having a presence along the border. And forcing people to go through the ports of entry and come into this country legally. Just come legally. Get in line to come legal and if you’re here illegally and we give you a two year work visa or three year work visa, then you go and you get back in line and come back.”
Questioner 3: “How many of the illegals we got now in the country that came in with that two year legal visa and then just stayed and not get re-upped?”
Collins: “I don’t know the number but I imagine it’s a lot of them.
Questioner 3 (continued): “with that many, what you’re talking about now is if you secure the border, you still would have that problem, even if you secure the border. Wouldn’t you?”
Collins: “Well, eeeee, the INS has gotta, you know, they gotta take care of the law that’s there better than what they’ve done in the past or you have no control of anybody. They got to uphold the law. They don’t bring them back in for a hearing. They process them, they’re here illegally. They process them, and say well you’ve got a hearing date at such and such a day. Well, they never show back up. Then if they’re apprehended on the road somewhere, unless it’s a lot of them, they just run loose again because local governments don’t have a place to keep them. They don’t have the money to keep them. It’s just the lack of enforcement of federal law by the federal agencies. And there is also a lack of enforcement and cooperation by a lot of large cities to cooperate with the federal government. In fact there are some cities who will pass ordinances that they tell their police, uh, law enforcement, “Don’t work with the federal agencies. We don’t want them to leave.” And one thing about the larger cities that have a larger population period, is that that head count means a lot in federal dollars on an annual basis. So you know there has to be all kinds of cooperation. This is not going to be an easy hill to climb. It’s gone on for a long time, it’s been let run loose and it’s created a real major problem. It’s, uh, costing a lot of money to local governments in the school systems and in hospitals and emergency rooms, and that’s another issue to talk about too some day.
Mac’s Third Rebuttal
Jim Marshall’s False Source Three:
Jim Marshall cites Mac’s own website. In fact Mac Collins condemns amnesty and only discusses his plan for needed foreign workers who would receive a two year work visa and then be required to return home.
The Truth
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/amnesty
am-nes-ty [am-nuh-stee] Pronunciation Key noun, plural –ties, verb, –tied, –ty-ing.
–noun
- a general pardon for offenses, esp. political offenses, against a government, often granted before any trial or conviction.
- Law. an act of forgiveness for past offenses, esp. to a class of persons as a whole.
- a forgetting or overlooking of any past offense.
–verb (used with object)
- to grant amnesty to; pardon.
First, Mac has advocated letting illegal immigrants remain in the country. “…if you’re here illegally and we give you a two year work visa or three year work visa, then you go and you get back in line and come back.” – Mac Collins, Moultrie Kiwanis Speech, 4/6/06
Letting illegal immigrants remain in this country and continue working as “guest workers” is amnesty – you are forgiving their illegal presence in the country and allowing them to continue working, even though they came here illegally. And Mac’s guest worker/amnesty plan does that very thing. In his own words, posted on his own website, Mac would let illegal immigrants stay in the United States and would give them a two or three year work visa. Conservative sources like the Minuteman Project, Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI) – who wrote the House Immigration Bill – and Rep. JD Hayworth (R-AZ) all agree that allowing illegal immigrants to continue working as guest workers is amnesty.
“The Pence plan is going to end up being an amnesty just like all the other guest worker plans. No matter how you package the idea, as soon you open up the idea that guest workers can stay, every illegal immigrant wanting to be in the U.S. immediately reclassifies themselves as a guest worker.” – James Gilchrist of the Minuteman Project, World Net Daily, 6/14/06
“A guest-worker program that applies to illegal aliens already here is an amnesty.” Jim Sensenbrenner, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Washington Times, 1/25/06
“Some have the audacity to claim a guest worker plan is not amnesty because it does not, in the President's words, place undocumented workers on an automatic path to citizenship. Madam Chairman, what does citizenship have to do with it? Most illegals do not come here with a copy of the Constitution in their back pockets yearning to become Americans. They come here mostly for one reason: a job. You can call it legalization or earned status adjustment or regularization, but a guest worker plan that lets illegals keep their jobs is amnesty.” Congressional Record, JD Hayworth (R-AZ), 12/16/2005
“A guest worker program is just amnesty by another name,” Jim Marshall to AP Reporter Ben Evans.
Mac’s Fourth Rebuttal
Jim Marshall’s False Source Four:
Marshall cites a 06/26/2006 Macon Telegraph article which details a Mac Collins support of a recent house bill against amnesty for illegal aliens. The article states:
Collins favors using the National Guard and supports the House immigration bill.
Unlike the Senate bill, the House version cracks down on illegal immigration without adding benefits for undocumented workers who are already in the United States. But Collins said he does eventually want a work visa program for guest workers.
The Truth
Well, it’s in the article, plain and simple: “But Collins said he does eventually want a work visa program for guest workers,” Macon Telegraph, 6/26/2006.
Allowing illegal immigrants a work visa, well, that’s amnesty Señor Mac. The House bill, which Jim Marshall supported, has no guest worker program – and unlike Mac Collins, Jim Marshall does not support a guest worker program. Mac may say he would support the House bill, but his plan for guest worker amnesty is much closer to the Senate’s permissive approach.