The Capital, Albany
Carl Paladino recently traveled to the Bronx to meet with Latino pastors. He assured them that depictions in the media that he is a racist are untrue. The charge was leveled after he circulated racial jokes via e-mails and sent friends a video of African tribal dancers which was characterized as a rehearsal for the inauguration of Barak Obama. In a release explaining his e-mails, he referred to Latinos as “spics.”
Paladino had a hard sell with the Latino ministers, who have congregations with mixed immigration status, because he has told Upstate voters that while Democrats want to offer undocumented immigrants a path to citizenship, he wants to offer them a path out of the country.
As the gubernatorial candidate of the Republican Party, interest in his views on immigration are growing, and I thought it would be good to look at his record.
Paladino on Comprehensive Immigration Reform:
“I am completely opposed to any form of amnesty or other political solution aimed to absorb illegal immigrants into the fabric of America. These people took advantage of the United States; they broke our laws and many jumped on New York’s Medicaid and social welfare systems the day they arrived.”
Paladino on requiring local police to enforce Federal immigration laws:
“Countless New Yorkers have told me that when concerned citizens call local authorities to inform of them of illegal immigrants and their activities in the community, their complaints fall on deaf ears. That is just flat wrong. Local policing agencies and elected officials must enforce the law. As Governor, I would make this happen.”
Paladino on Gov. Paterson’s criticism of Arizona’s anti-immigrant law SB 1070:
“Instead of seizing his Constitutional powers as Governor to solve New York’s growing immigration problem, David Paterson is playing ethnic politics at its worst. He’s trying to appeal to the millions of illegals in this country the Obama administration hopes to make citizens, voters and Democrats in time for the next election. Local policing agencies and elected officials must enforce the law and, as Governor, I would make that happen.”
Paladino’s website” on the downtown Islamic center:
“The Ground Zero Mosque is an affront to the American people and an insult to the thousands who died there and the thousands of troops who have been killed and maimed in the ensuing wars.
Ground Zero is much larger than the footprint of the Twin Towers. In fact, Ground Zero is the entire lower Manhattan district where the dust cloud fell. That cloud contained the remains of the many men and women murdered.
Carl doesn’t think we need to just investigate the funding behind the Mosque – that’s equivocating. It doesn’t matter who paid for it. When Carl is sworn in as Governor of New York, he will stop the Mosque that very day by any legal means necessary.”
Eminent domain may help accomplish this, but not by taking the property. With limited eminent domain, the Ground Zero District can simply be declared a restricted area where insults to the 9-11 families may never be built.
