Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Shurtleff sticks to his guns on immigration
Posted By Eric S. Peterson on June 30, 2010, 3:17 PM
Attorney General Mark Shurtleff is sticking to his guns on immigration reform, even if he loses some Facebook friends in the process.---
Attorney General Mark Shurtleff recently proposed the idea of partnering with Mexican counterparts to adopt a guest-worker pilot program that would allow undocumented immigrants limited permits to legally work in the U.S. It was a similar recommendation made in years past by others like the Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce and the conservative think tank, the Sutherland Institute.Still, if ever there was proof of how divisive the immigration issue is especially within conservative circles, one needn’t look further than the dialogue on Shurtleff’s own FB page.
In a five-part post about immigration reform Shurtleff explains that a guest worker program needs to apply to immigrants who go back to their home country first before applying so as not advantage undocumented immigrants in the country now, over those who have yet to cross the border legally or illegally.
“Placing someone at the bottom of the job AND immigration lines, for crossing the border illegally or committing crime while here, creates an economic incentive to do the right thing.” Shurtleff wrote in a post today.
Using all caps on the “and” would seem a surefire way to emphasize his point to the anti-immigration crowd that he's not promoting anything like amnesty right?
In response on poster wrote simply: “You scare me. You're gone from my Facebook. I hope someone can stop you or send you to Mexico.”
With another chiming in: “I agree. He seems to be more and more on the side of the illegals.”
At this point, Mark had to step back into the fray and address the commenters:
“Do you even read my posts before you go off? Let me try again and please think about this for 30 seconds. I just said that if illegals want to eventually become citizens or just want to work here legally under our existing guest worker visa laws, they must get at the back of the line - which means they must go back to their countries and start over at the back of the line! So what is your objection to that?”
To wit, the original commenter denied this argument was in Shurtleff's original post—it was—and then simply challenged:
“Why can't we just send them all home now, to start the process?”
The ironic thing was the posts and his blog about the subject were meant to fill in the gaps left by recent media coverage of his proposal. Poor Mark. Good luck with that--you're certainly a pioneer for all politicians figuring out how to convey nuance in posts and tweets.
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