Doug Hoffman's immigration position, Part 2

On October 21, Glenn Beck interviewed Doug Hoffman on his radio show, and the transcript and audio are here, relevant portion excerpted at [1]. I previously discussed Hoffman's immigration position based on the three sentences he has on his site (questions for him are here); my review wasn't positive. While there's a slight glimmer of hope in what he said on Beck's show in regards to amnesty, the rest reveals him to be a bit worse than what I assumed based on the three-sentence blurb.

1. Based on the fact that he seems a bit malleable in the interview, he doesn't appear to be an ideologue on this issue or have been completely paid off; it might be possible to improve his position, if not for the fact that most of his ardent supporters either support massive immigration or concentrate on less important topics and thus won't ask him about this issue in an attempt to make him stronger; their mental and emotional issues also play into that (see tea parties).
2. As discussed before, he's very business-friendly, openly supporting mass immigration by skilled workers and - as previously discussed - probably supporting a guest workers scheme for low-wage workers.
3. He sounds a bit like George W Bush with his "willing workers" shtick with this: "I do believe, again, in giving better easier regulations and red tape to make workers that want to come into this country, giving them green cards easier so that we know they're in here legally and we know that they go out". The fact that he doesn't appear to be clear on what a green card is isn't that big of a deal; the big deal is that he appears to be supporting guest workers just as Bush did.
4. He was asked where he stood on amnesty and, as with all other politicians he said he was against it. Then, while they brought up the topic of comprehensive immigration reform and Hoffman appeared to come out against it and in favor of attrition. However, he just seemed to assent to Beck's prompting and didn't explicitly say he was for that. Unless he actually says it explicitly, it doesn't count (he's a politician after all).
5. Hoffman is, however, quite gung-ho on skilled immigration at least of the temporary kind ("we need to make it easy for skilled professionals and doctors and scientists and engineers that can come in here and help us out and then go home after they've done the job, we need to make it easier for them to come in.") He doesn't mention it by name, but that means something like the H1B program.

Partial transcript follows:

[1]

PAT: Comprehensive immigration reform. How do you feel about comprehensive immigration reform? Because family values don't stop at the Rio Grande.

HOFFMAN: Exactly, exactly.

PAT: Where do you stand on amnesty?

HOFFMAN: I do not believe on giving amnesty. I do believe, again, in giving better easier regulations and red tape to make workers that want to come into this country, giving them green cards easier so that we know they're in here legally and we know that they go out when they're

PAT: You know what? That's the discussion we should be having.

GLENN: Okay. Now hang on just a second. So you want to make it easier for immigrants to come here through the front door, which I'm totally behind.

PAT: Yep.

GLENN: Well, Doug, how are you ever going to get everybody who's already here out?

HOFFMAN: Well, that, I don't have an instant solution for but we certainly have to find a way that we don't have people sneaking across our borders.

GLENN: Okay, I got one for you.

HOFFMAN: Coming in.

GLENN: Got one for you. Doug, let me help you out. I'm going to give you a drink. I'm buying a cocktail for you.

HOFFMAN: There it is.

GLENN: Well, they seem to find their way here. I'm guessing they will be able to find themselves going the other direction. It's just reverse the map. However, we need an incentive for doing that and that is why we're going after all of the companies that are hiring these people. They came here for jobs. If the jobs dry up, they will go home. And those jobs are currently being needed by Americans who are here and we know that pay taxes. So let's go after the giant corporations who are living on the 21st century version of the slave trade, huh? Huh?

HOFFMAN: Okay.

GLENN: Now how much do you want to

HOFFMAN: That's a good drink.

PAT: How about these three words: Enforce the law.

HOFFMAN: Absolutely. That will work.

GLENN: That's good. That's good. There you go.

PAT: They self support. And it's worked in every, virtually every city that's tried that.

HOFFMAN: Right. But one thing I was trying to get across, Glenn, is that we need to make it easy for skilled professionals and doctors and scientists and engineers that can come in here and help us out and then go home after they've done the job, we need to make it easier for them to come in.

GLENN: Absolutely. Look, before all of this was in the news, what's his name, gates, Bill Gates was saying Microsoft is going to fall behind because we can't get the green cards, we can't get the Visas for it to come in and work. We're losing all of these big brains that have always gone to colleges here and then wanted to stay here because of the opportunity. And we can't keep them here anymore and our government has been saying, well, we need to send them home, we need 0 send. What? Let's keep the best and the brightest here.

HOFFMAN: That's what I'm saying, that's absolutely what I'm saying is America's the melting pot and we need to get highly skilled people that can help us out to stay here.

Comments

I heard an interview with Hoffman today in which he mentioned the farmers (as one group) in his district. If he wins, let's hope he doesn't support Feinstein's AgJobs amnesty scheme. I'm cautiously hopeful though that Hoffman would be willing to oppose pathway mass amnesty.

_He sounds a bit like George W Bush..._ He sounds like an idiot. Is that the same thing?

'and then go home after they've done the job' When has that ever been the case? Pushers of that line are either naive or lying.