The Republican presidential candidates gathered again last night at the Ronald Reagan presidential library in Simi Valley, California for their first debate with newcomer Governor Rick Perry (TX). Many aspects of the night were rather predictable: Governors Perry and Mitt Romney (MA) came out swinging, and all the candidates repeatedly hailed Reagan and railed against Obama. For those of you who missed it, here’s the segment on immigration:
Nearly three-fourths of the debate passed before MSNBC trotted out Telemundo anchor Jose Diaz-Balart to ask the immigration questions of the night. We live-tweeted the segment here (spoiler: not much was said beyond ‘we must focus on the border’). Below is a roundup of some of our favorite tweets from the evening (check out our twitter feed for some of the others that we re-tweeted during the debate):
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@drdigipol: Build a wall around @michellebachmann. Then we can have a serious debate on #immigration reform. #p2 @marshallfitz
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@jcbivins: So Pres. Bachmann’s plan is to make people promise not to be a burden? #Immigration solved. #GOPDebate
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@DavidLeopold: Bachmann: Conflates narco-terrorism with #immigration; refuses to answer question abt what to do with 11m undocumented people. #reagandebate
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@pwolgin: 1950s fun facts: US picked immigrants by race, bracero program exploited Mexicans, and let’s not forget McCarthyism… #immigration
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@marshallfitz: Wow – life rocked in US b4 uppity black and brown folks had rts RT @americasvoice #Bachmann: we didn’t have #immigration problem until 1960s
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@ImmPolitic: Interesting that Bachman said #immigration sys was better in 50s before immigrants from LatinAmerica & Asia were allowed in US #ReaganDebate
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@joscottcoe: Gov. Perry’s idea of #immigration reform involves predator drones. Gee, that sounds both cheap and fair! #justice #GOPdebate
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@CarolineWren: Obviously no one in this debate has watched Jurassic Park. Fences don’t work.#immigration
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@anoorani: FYI GOP: SW border crime rate LOWER than national. No more tired talking points, time for real #immigration solution. http://j.mp/ocZLr3
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@DoubleEYEEsq: Can I buy this fence from home depot? They talk about it like we can pick it up #GOP #immigration
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@PCBJohnnyMac: Reagan wanted to tear down a wall and these guys want to build up a fence #reagandebate #immigration
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@ImmigrantsList1: Reagan would disagree. RT @UnivisionNews “We cannot give amnesty to people who come here illegally.” — Romney #ReaganDebate #immigration
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@Carlos_Reds: Ronald Reagan will prefer to be and independent candidate after listening to their Republican Presidential Candidates….#immigration
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@thornburgh: Applause for Newt’s English-only line shows why GOP isn’t ready for what Perry called an “intellectually appropriate” debate on #immigration
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@thenormaj: Gingrich was the only one that mentioned that some ppl that have been here for a while are married to US Citizens w/ legal kids #immigration
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@Barry1776: #GOPDebate Santorum says #immigration is a great source of strength for the #USA – not one audience member applauds.
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@angelstar2: RT @theSoniaG: RT @Blazian5: Nobody’s touching Comprehensive #ImmigrationReform with a 10 foot pole #gopdebate #GOPFail #cowards
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@brianspittler: Huntsman: We are dealing with human beings. Bachmann: We should be scanning for contagious diseases #immigration #utpol #reagandebate
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@DustinRDaniels: #Immigration is a Human Issue- Jon Huntsman. I Completely Agree but are we sure Gov. Huntsman is running in the right primary? #p2 #immyouth
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@frizzbarks @emannphd: Oh dear. Which desirable jobs would those be? Grueling manual labour, cooking & cleaning? *sigh* #immigration
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@Mwforhr: Where is the Ellis Island of today? #GOPDebate #immigration
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@studentactivism: Everything Ron Paul knows about border fences he learned from Jake Gyllenhaal movies about ice. #reagandebate
