Sen. Kyl: Spin Doesn't Change My Immigration Record

"Jim Pederson is now trying to spin his way around the comment he made on KTAR radio earlier this year: that the 1986 amnesty law was 'the last effective measure' Congress passed to address the problem of illegal immigration ('Jim Pederson: 'I oppose amnesty' ' - Opinions, Monday). What he said caught people's attention because just about everyone knows that the only thing the 1986 law did effectively was grant amnesty to 3 million illegal immigrants. If it is the employer sanctions and border security provisions of that law that he supports, as he now claims, it would make no sense for Pederson to say the law was "effective," since those other provisions were not seriously implemented or enforced," Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) says in an op-ed. "Maybe Pederson has changed his position; maybe he misspoke. In any case, the immigration plan he has proposed during the course of this year's campaign would put illegal immigrants on an automatic path to citizenship. I oppose that, whatever it's called. I do not believe that people who have broken our laws should be rewarded with something as precious as U.S. citizenship."

Read the full story