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Frightening GOP Immigration "Solution" Would Close Borders, Mimic East Germany

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Building on race-baiting campaigns that demonize immigrants and deploy Spanish-language ads to suppress Latino turnout, many 2010 Republican candidates have embraced a disturbing new vision for U.S. immigration policy.

The vision, touted recently by high-profile Republican Senate candidates Christine O’Donnell in Delaware, Mark Kirk in Illinois, and Joe Miller in Alaska, would involve closing borders, walling off the U.S., and embracing the Iron Curtain as a model for our future.

Take a look at how extreme the Republican “border enforcement” platform has become:

  • Closing the Borders In last night’s Illinois Senate debate against Democrat Alexi Giannoulias, Republican Mark Kirk raised the specter of border violence spilling into Illinois and then stated, “if we close down the border, if make sure that for the homeland security of the United States, we accomplish a fundamental mission of understanding who is coming into the country,” then we will “restore the trust” of the American people. No clarifications yet on what Kirk meant. And in her recent debate with Democratic candidate Chris Coons, Delaware Republican Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell advocated for closing the U.S. borders entirely. Not the usual “strengthening” border enforcement talking points. Closing the borders entirely. The Daily Caller followed up with the O’Donnell campaign to see if she hadn’t misspoke and “was told that the statement accurately reflected her views.”

  • Embracing the Iron Curtain Model Meanwhile, Alaska Republican Senate candidate Joe Miller recently touted East Germany as the exemplar of border security that he’d like the U.S. to emulate, saying, “The first thing that has to be done is secure the border…if East Germany could do it, we could do it.” Amazingly, this wasn’t the most over-the-top border comment of the past few days by Republican candidates. A Georgia Republican state representative, John Yates, called for border agents to “shoot to kill if anybody crosses,” and later stated, “Stopping Hitler was worth the price. It’s our border, they’re invading us.”

And as a disturbing aside, it turns out that Joe Miller’s private security detail, which has been widely criticized for handcuffing a journalist who asked Miller a question at a recent campaign event, is owned by a commander and supplier for the radical Alaska Citizen’s Militia Yikes.