Rescue California

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Transcript of gubernatorial recall debate

September 24, 2003

Page 12

immigrants here like trying to drive to go to work or take your kids to school. It's all very well that that you say you are for children, you want them to be insured. But if their parents cannot legally drive them to work in a way that they are insured and safe, don't you think that is a bit of a contradiction?

SCHWARZENEGGER: Arianna, again, as usual, you are off here. We are talking about health care and you are talking about driver's licenses.

HUFFINGTON: But they are connected.

SCHWARZENEGGER: I am against the driver's licenses because it is (unintelligible) Therefore it is dangerous to the security of California. Governor Davis came out about a year ago, had made it clear, has said we cannot do that because it is dangerous. It is a security problem. Notice now because there is an election coming up on Oct. 7, now all of a sudden he says let's get some more votes. That is the idea of this thing. It is wrong to do that. And he knows we have a security problem. The governor is supposed to represent the people of California not special interest. That is the problem.

MCCLINTOCK: I think you are all losing sight of a very important fact, and that is we are talking about families that are in this country in violation of our nation's immigration laws. Now this nation has the most generous immigration policies of any nation in the world. Illegal immigration undermines that process of legal immigration that's the strength of our nation, and there are millions of people who are willing to abide by our immigration laws to come to this nation, become Americans and see their children grow up and prosper as Americans. Illegal immigration is the process of cutting in line in front of them, and I don't believe we should be rewarding such behavior. Illegal immigration is costing this country $4 billion in direct costs out of our treasury by the most conservative estimates available. We've got to make sure our immigration laws are enforced. I led the opposition to the measure on giving driver's licenses to illegal immigrants because it undermines the enforcement of our immigration laws.

HUFFINGTON: (unintelligible) We are for taking care of the kids, but not for driving them safely to school or to the emergency room or wherever their health care is to be provided. And ultimately that is a kind of pandering to this Pete Wilson team that you are surrounding yourself with because ultimately they are not going to change. They don't really fundamentally care for those immigrants in this country.

SCHWARZENEGGER: There is no background check. It is dangerous for our security.

CITIZEN'S QUESTION: Everybody talks about wanting a colorblind society, but what does that actually mean to you? In other words, how do we know when we have succeeded?

HUFFINGTON: Well, first of all, we will never know if we've achieved a colorblind society if we pass Proposition 54, because it would make it impossible to collect the kind of data we need to know whether we are making progress.

MODERATOR: Would you please explain what (Prop.) 54 is?