Ah, Sarah Palin.
This weekend, she was in an uproar over the immigration bill that just passed the Senate. She is just outraged about the path to citizenship. But here’s the thing: in 2008, she strongly supported a pathway to citizenship.
It’s all captured in an article from Buzzfeed’s Andrew Kaczynski.
First, the recent rant:
“A matter of a lack principle and respect for the rule of law,” Palin said about Republicans supporting immigration reform Saturday on Fox News. “This was an absolute betrayal of working-class Americans who do respect the rule of law and legal immigrants who have come here and stood in law, and paid their dues if you will, and become new Americans.”
“It’s an absolute betrayal of the will of the people and the rule of the law,” she added.
“You’ve just abandoned the Reagan Democrats with this amnesty bill,” Palin recentlywrote on her Facebook page. “You disrespect Hispanics with your assumption that they desire ignoring the rule of law.”
“Hope it was worth 30 pieces of silver,” she said of Marco Rubio of getting a call from Obama. (Rubio wasn’t available, so never spoke to Obama.)
Palin is stirring the anti-immigrant pot using all kinds of code words. One does wonder if she even knows that President Reagan signed the 1986 immigration law.
But it wasn’t always this way. Just a few years ago, Palin–when she was on the 2008 ticket and speaking to Spanish-language media–had a remarkably different opinion:
For all of Palin’s recent tough rhetoric on immigration, the former governor of Alaska expressed support for immigration reform during the 2008 presidential campaign according to video and a transcript an October 2008 interview with the Spanish-language channel Univision. The type of immigration reform Palin supported would surely fall under her current definition of “amnesty.”
“There is no way that in the U.S. we would round up every illegal immigrant — there are about 12 million of the illegal immigrants — not only economically is that just an impossibility but that’s not a humane way anyway to deal with the issue that we face with illegal immigration,” Palin said.
When asked if she supported “a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants,” Palin responded that she did.
“I do because I understand why people would want to be in America. To seek the safety and prosperity, the opportunities, the health that is here,” Palin said. “It is so important that yes, people follow the rules so that people can be treated equally and fairly in this country.”
We agree with 2008 Palin.
Many Republicans, seeing the demographic changes on the horizon, have evolved on immigration reform with a path to citizenship. Not Sarah Palin. She’s going backwards, but still heading off the demographic cliff.
