Monday, June 23, 2008

Is McCain two-faced on immigration?

A closed-door meeting with Latino leaders has raised some suspicions that Republican presidential hopeful John McCain is hypocritical on immigration. Contradicting versions have surfaced of the meeting between McCain and over 100 Hispanic leaders on Wednesday:

In the meeting, attendees said McCain promised that, if elected, Congress would pass a comprehensive immigration reform bill. That's anathema to people like Rosanna Pulido, the director of the Illinois Minuteman Project, who attended the event. Pulido said McCain used the phrase "comprehensive immigration reform" three times. "To me, it's a code word for amnesty" for illegal immigrants to gain citizenship, she said…

"He's one John McCain in front of white Republicans and he's a different John McCain in front of Hispanics," Pulido said…But (Democratic Illinois state Sen. Martin) Sandoval said Pulido's comments and the resulting fallout over his own meeting with McCain were an "overreaction" and that he told the Republican contender the same thing he would tell Obama--"Nobody should take for granted the Latino community."

After the meeting, Pulido- who is of Mexican background- told one journalist that she was “appalled” that McCain said that “did you know Spanish was spoken in Arizona before English?”

Democratic challenger Barack Obama’s communications director said that the meeting is the latest flip-flop by McCain which includes reversing his original stance on an immigration reform proposal he used to support.

Sources- Across The Pond, The Swamp, Political Punch, The Latin Americanist, Political Intelligence

Image- Canada.com

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