GOP Platform Opposes Amnesty
By Josiah Ryan
The CNS News, August 28, 2008
http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=34747
A draft copy of the GOP platform, which was obtained by CNSNews.com on Wednesday, says We oppose amnesty for illegal immigrants.
But Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the presumptive presidential nominee for the Republican Party, has been a leading proponent in Congress for giving illegal aliens a pathway to citizenship.
The GOP platform is being written in Minneapolis this week in preparation for the Republican National Convention, scheduled for early September.
It [the rule of law] does not mean drivers licenses for illegal aliens, nor does it mean that states should be allowed to flout the federal law barring them from giving in-state tuition rates to illegal aliens. We oppose amnesty, the draft says.
'Amnesty has to be an important part of [any immigration solution] because there are people who have lived in this country for 20, 30 or 40 years, who have raised children here and pay taxes here and are not citizens. That has to be a component of it, McCain reportedly told the Tucson Citizen on May 29, 2003.
In June, McCain told the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials that comprehensive immigration reform is his 'top priority — yesterday, today and tomorrow.'
In 2006, McCain worked with Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) to ensure passage in the Senate of a 'comprehensive' immigration reform bill that would have given illegal aliens a path to citizenship while allowing 200,000 new 'guest workers' to enter the country each year.
Sources in Minneapolis told CNSNews.com that the GOP platform should be completed by Wednesday but it will not be officially released until Monday.
In other news, the Boston Globe reported that the Republican platform will not include a call to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Thats another area where Republicans differ with McCain, who opposes drilling in ANWR.
According to the Globe, some platform committee members said theyll try to bring McCain around to their way of thinking after hes elected president.
The platform does endorse expanded domestic oil drilling in general.
