Upton Wants to Give Illegal Aliens "Legitimacy"

Congressman Fred Upton participated in a "live chat" with the Kalamazoo Gazette yesterday.

Live chat: Congressman Fred Upton takes your questions
After the chat video: Congressman Fred Upton talks immigration, fiscal cliff

One question addressed immigration.  Upton answered as follows.

Fred Upton
Yes, our current immigration system is broken and i truly am encouraged that we will see a bi-partisan piece of legislation by early summer. Though there may not be a specific pathway to citizenship, there should be a pathway to legitimacy. Both the House Senate have bi-partisan working groups participating and i think we will be able to view their drafts in the next month. I will be listening to the many voices of r district--businesses and agricultural interests as well as the Hispanic community as we move forward to real reform.

He did not explain what "legitimacy" means in this comment.

After the live chat, Upton took questions from Fritz Klug.  At 1:00 into the video, he briefly mentioned immigration in the context of jobs, and mentioned meeting with the Farm Bureau (uh oh).  At 9:30, Klug asked Upton what "legitimacy" means.  Upton explained that

"I would define it as saying that there's not a fear of deportation--we have some--we have a lot of non-citizens who live here, who maybe don't want to become citizens."

He then talked about legalizing an illegal restaurant owner, Ibrahim Parlak, who was threatened with deportation due to his ties to a Kurdish rebel group.

"So when we talk about a pathway to legitimacy, I mean, not a fear of all of a sudden being picked up and taken away and losing all..."

Legalization is amnesty.

"and be able to work and pay--still pay taxes but maybe not have all the rights of citizenship, voting and all that type--I do believe that you have to be a citizen to be able to vote."

Wow, bold stance.

So there we have it.  Upton supports amnesty.  Fortunately, Upton has been willing to vacillate on immigration in the past, so if enough patriots voice opposition to the amnesty schemes being cooked up in Congress, he may still decide it is in his political interest to oppose them.

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More Upton/Amnesty Chatter
Upton for Amnesty?
Upton on Immigration
Upton on Invasion