Bill Richardson: up with Kennedy-McCain, down with Flake-Gutierrez (MyDD sponsored by SEIU)

Jonathan Singer conducted an SEIU-sponsored interview at MyDD with OAS "Special Envoy" Bill Richardson [1], and asked him a question about the latest amnesty scheme. Richardson is opposed to Gutierrez-Flake's "touchback" provision, even though the symbolic gesture of leaving the country to re-enter illegally could be done any time within six years and their staffers admitted that it could be as little as one day:

Richardson: I'd like to see the original Kennedy-McCain initiative, which established a path to legalization without the return that involves setting standards like if you speak English, if you pass a background check, if you pay a fine for coming illegally, you pay back taxes, you embrace American values and you don't get ahead of those who get here legally I think that provision is cleaner, it's clearer, it's more compassionate. You know it's divided up by certain years. You can be eligible for green card or some sort of guest worker pass. I believe that is far preferable. But I haven't seen Gutierrez'... Does it have that provision to return?

Singer: Yeah.

Richardson: I prefer the Kennedy-McCain version.

I'd leave a comment, but they'd probably delete it as they've done in the past.

Here's our Gutierrez-Flake roundup with links to all other posts on that topic.

[1] mydd.com/story/2007/3/26/25954/5752
Note that right at the top it says "[t]his coverage is sponsored by SEIU". On a related note, another blogger (Taylor Marsh) covered another event with sponsorship from the AFSCME (taylormarsh.com/archives_view.php?id=25183).

Immigration2007a · Mon, 03/26/2007 - 08:13 · Importance: 1