Ken Cuccinelli on Immigration
Illegal immigration is one of many issues that an Attorney General will be focused on during his tenure. With the rise of illegal immigrants in Virginia, it is important that the Attorney General address any legal issues that may arise in a fair manner. There is no doubt that we have a candidate seeking the Attorney General nomination, who has a noted legislative record on handling illegal immigration, and that candidate is Ken Cuccinelli.
Ken Cuccinelli is a founding member of the national organization for State Legislators for Legal Immigration. He will ensure that legislation is passed to crack down on illegal aliens who repeatedly break laws, such as identity theft and joining violent criminal gangs. If they break the laws, then they get deported.
Cuccinelli has also passed legislation that requires employers to do background checks and ensure that only legal residents are hired. (Reference SB517). Additionally, Cuccinelli has always supported E-Verify (even though, a certain AG candidate has accused Cuccinelli of being soft on illegal immigration and being against E-Verify). Cuccinelli has also been successful by passing legislation that will give local municipalities legal authority to investigate illegal boarding houses.
So, if you think Cuccinelli is soft on illegal immigration, you are wrongly mistaken. Throughout his legislative career, Cuccinelli has been working hard to make Virginia a safe place to live, work, and conduct business. He has always been strong on adhering to both the Virginia and U.S. Constitution, and this is why I am supporting Ken Cuccinelli on May 30th.
**Cross Posted at Bloggers 4 Ken Cuccinelli
Posted on April 30, 2009, in Virginia Politics and tagged 2009 Election, Attorney General, Illegal Immigration, Ken Cuccinelli, Virginia. Bookmark the permalink. 9 Comments.
Cuccinelli made it very clear last week that he wouldn’t support requiring private businesses to use E-Verify before hiring an employee. Both John Brownlee and Dave Foster will demand such action. This puts Cuccinelli on the wrong side of the illegal immigration issue and without my vote. Just like his death penalty position, Cuccinelli wants to have it both ways — strong in theory but weak in practice. I won’t be voting for another soft on illegals candidate.
James, you missunderstood Ken’s position. He does support requiring private companies to use it but after the state has used it and has proven to everyone that it works. The Brownlee campaign is lying to everyone on Ken’s position. They would love for you to forget about all the work Ken has done on this issue. Don’t fall for lies and missinformation, look for the truth, ken has a long record to back him up.
Lauren: I don’t understand why you claim the Brownlee campaign is lying. Cuccinelli himself admits that he doesn’t want to impose E-verify on businesses now because he doesn’t trust the system. He will only impose E-verify on government. That is a policy difference between two candidates. Where is the Brownlee campaign lying? Here is what the Brownlee campaign put in their email:
“State Senator Ken Cuccinelli said he opposed requiring private employers to use E-Verify, suggesting the system was too flawed to be reliable.”
Now, please tell me how that is a lie. That is exactly the position Cuccinelli has stated on other occasions. Brownlee wants to implement the program for both public and private now. Cuccinelli doesn’t. No one is lying.
From what I have heard from Ken is that due to the Dems in the Senate a e-verify bill will not make it through. The Republicans have tried for years ( with Ken’s support) and it just will not get any Democrat support. Ken’s idea is to try to get some of it through by first passing it for just the state. This is not due to the fact that he doesn’t support all of it but becouse he wants to get the ball rolling. he believes that after it is proven to work for the state the Democrats will have a harder time standing in the way of moving it to the private side. I have heard Ken speak to this a number of times. Brownlee would like you to believe that Ken isn’t in favor of the private e-verify. WRONG This is where Brownlee is lying. The truth is that we will have Democrat control of the Senate for two more years. If we want to get this started we need to be smart about it. It will not pass for two more years if we continue to try for it all at once. The part that really gets me mad is the fact that Brownlee is attacting Cuccinelli for a smart move that will start things in the right direction. This is purely politics at its worst. For no longer than Brownlee has been involve in politics he sure went dirty fast.
If Ken believes e-verify is unreliable, why does Ken want to require the government to use it. Shouldn’t more testing be required?
Lauren: Again, you must listen to what Cuccinelli said at the debate. OK, so you won’t believe Brownlee. How about these folks:
“Undecided, I attended the Saturday AG debate. I will make my decision based on the candidates stands on immigration issues. Candidate Cuccinelli surprised me as he said that he would not require businesses to use E-verify to ensure that job takers are lawfully present and eligible to work. He claimed E-verify has many errors.”
James G. McDonald
Virginia Immigration Reform PAC
Member, US Supreme Court Bar
“I attended the VFRW Convention this past weekend and watched the Brownlee/Cuccinelli/Foster debate. Mr. Brownlee stated that he supports E-Verify but I was surprised that Mr. Cuccinelli said that he would not impose E-Verify on businesses in Virginia.”
Peggy Een
“At the VFRW debate on Saturday, Ken Cuccinelli said that E-verify was so full of errors that he would not require anybody in private business to use it.”
Dorothy O’Rourke
“I sat at Saturday’s VFRW debate in total disbelief on what I was hearing from Ken Cuccinelli. He stated that he would not require employers to use e verify because it did not work. Cuccinelli represents the Senate District that I live in so I pay extremely close attention to what he says and how he votes.”
Anna Lee
Long-time VFRW Member
Member of the RPV State Central Committee
Now, are all these Republicans lying as well? Come on, Cuccinelli has gotten wobbly on immigration or he simply misspoke. Why can’t you folks admit that Cuccinelli is human and makes mistakes. I guess it is easier to call Brownlee a liar, right?
James, as I stated before, I wasn’t at the meeting and don’t know what Ken said. Maybe he missoke, I don’t know. My point is that Brownlee is playing the very common game of taking one line that missrepresents someone and trying to build something out of it. That is what I call a lie. You may call it what ever you would like. Brownlee is trying to make people believe that Ken doesn’t want e-verify. That is not true, Ken supports e-verify.
James,
What are you going to rely on? Cuccinelli’s legislative record of supporting E-verify or the hearsay of people historically hostile to Senator Cuccinelli, such as Anna Lee?
Most rational people will rely on the record with bills such as 2007′s SB517 requiring E-verify for state contractors.
On that note, Cuccinelli pointed out that in getting E-Verify passed in the hostile VA Senate, it is a better political tactic to get the Senate to support mandating E-Verify for state employees, as a first step before imposing the requirements on businesses. Cuccinelli has always supported imposing E-verify on private businesses even when such bills were abandoned or left to die in committee.
This just shows that Brownlee and his quoted supporters are unacquainted with legislative and political realities which are evident in this latest, desperate misrepresentation. This latest round of attack really brings into question Brownlee’s ability to run an effective political campaign with messages so easily refuted.
I’m with James. There were plenty of people at the debate, and they heard it pretty clearly what Ken said. He was pretty clear to the people in that room, that he didn’t feel that e-verify should be mandated on private business, however, he would support it for the State Government. This story now that he just wants to “prove” that it works is just silly. If it is reliable for him to force on the State Government, it better be ready and working properly. But leave it to him to find a way to blame the other party. It is a clever way to dodge his frequent, say it, but didn’t mean it comments. All I know is as a delegate, I finally know who I’m going to be voting for on May 30.