E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSSOSKALOOSA, Iowa—Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann waded into a sensitive area of immigration policy Saturday during a somewhat charged exchange at a campaign stop in southeast Iowa.
Bachmann entered an extended exchange with a college student (and Democrat) over how to handle the immigrants who are brought to the U.S. illegally as children.
After finishing a speech that focused in part on repealing the federal health care law and overhauling the tax code, Bachmann opened the floor to questions from the 100 or so people gathered at Smokey Row restaurant.
A 19 year-old college student, identifying himself as Latino, asked what Bachmann would “do to” the children of illegal immigrants.
Bachmann responded that she is “not doing anything to them,” and described why she is against the federal government rewarding citizenship to the children of illegal immigrants.
“Their parents are the ones who brought them here,” Bachmann said.
"They did not have the legal right to come to the United States," Bachmann added, of the parents. "We do not owe people who broke our laws to come into the country. We don’t owe them anything.”
Bachmann went on to draw a parallel to her own family’s journey to the United States more than 150 years ago.
"I dare say that probably every single person in this room descends from immigrants,” Bachmann said.
“I did—my immigrant family came here in the 1850s, and they came into the United States legally. They received zero benefits.”
The exchange was somewhat charged, because the student, Roy Aguillon, cast the question in personal terms.
“These guys were my friends," Aguillon said. "They are the guys who sit next to me in class, who I see in Walmart.”
Aguillon, who is from San Antonio and is a student at nearby William Penn University, is a second-generation American citizen and is active in local politics—serving as the vice president of the College & Young Democrats of Iowa.
In an interview with NBC News, Aguillon said he didn't intend to draw Bachmann into a discussion about the DREAM Act—legislation which would offer benefits, including citizenship, to the children of illegal immigrants.
Instead, he says, he was looking for a practical answer for young illegals, given Bachmann's hard line position.
“These guys don’t know anything else," Aguillon said during his interview with NBC. "What are you going to do, send them back to Mexico? The place is basically in the middle of a drug war.”
Aguillon says he didn’t attend the event to raise trouble, and despite his leadership role in the Iowa College Democrats, he would consider voting Republican in 2012.
He complains that President Obama abandoned the DREAM Act, and hasn’t been hard enough on Wall Street. He says, of Obama: “He’s not enough of a fighter to be my president right now.”
Despite the personal tone of their exchange, Aguillon and Bachmann chatted following the event, and they posed for pictures together afterward, along with Aguillon's girlfriend.
As the campaign team left the restaurant, Iowa state co-chair Brad Zaun, a state senator from Urbandale, pulled him aside.
“Thanks for your honesty,” Zaun said.
Leave a Comment:
What bothers me about this whole exchange and others I have read lately is that Latinos, Gays, Blacks all say that Obama hasn't done enough, he is not their choice to elect again. However have any of these groups thought that if a republican wins over Obama, None of them will be treated with any respect or consideration. In fact, if the Republicans win, before you know it, they will be sending all Latinos, legal or not out of the country, any gay rights that have been enacted will be reversed and who knows what else will happen.
Just to make this clear, I'm not one of them. Considering who Obama has to work with and deal with, there isn't a good enough plan, or a good enough law placed on the table to legislate that they'll agree to. We need to vote in more Democrats and moderate Republicans back into Congress to at least balance the power of our government or we'll never get anywhere. I'll make him my first choice unless there are better alternatives later in the year to the right wing trash driving for control. I don't see them doing any better to improve our current issues.
jon s,
Very well put. Of all the blogs I've read yours is very clear and concise.
Thank you
Bachmann is neither intelligent nor a true Christian. Things she has claimed to do she has done for monetary gain: for example the kids she "fostered". She was paid to foster them, she didn't just open her doors and try to help some kids who needed help, her husband had those kids sent to them using his position, then they received money from the state to keep those kids. Of the 7 foster children my husband and I have had, there were 2 sets of brother sister siblings, one set was a 16 year old brother and a 13 year old sister, the other was a 2 year old sister and a 5 year old brother, and the rest were teen boys the youngest of which was 14; only once did we receive any help from the state and all that we received was medical and food stamps for the children in our care. She received large state checks for her "foster" kids, then lied about how many she had and how long she had them. We had ours until they graduated high school and were capable of caring for themselves, except for the youngest siblings, their grandparents took them in after 3 months but we stayed in touch and now they live within blocks of us and come to see us almost daily. She makes me ill.
Yeah, Yeah yeah. And Obama like to uphold justice by allowing people to break the law. Did I miss something?
Are you saying you took kids in and weren't "compensated" for it; You did everything out of your own pocket? You must be rich to afford all that expense without subsidies to do so! BS! You took everything I'm sure that you were "entitled" to to raise these kid just as they did. Sounds like the "Pot calling the Kettle Black!" Oh did she get a little more than you? Sounds like Sour grapes! I give alot of credit to people who open their homes for these kids and try to give them a "Normal family life" If they are "assisted" monetarily, it will save us in the long run if they are successful and they don't become criminals. You just don't like her because of her politics; Otherwise, she's done the same thing you have done! Monetary gain Are you friggin crazy? There are easier ways to make a buck!
John P::: Some people take the children in because they love kids. My sister-in-law and her husband did that for many years-- and they didn't get anything from the government. They had four children of their own-- biological children-- but took in many more through the years. Joe had a good job so they could afford them, but it was for LOVE and nothing else. Sounds as if you tried it and were turned down because you don't really LOVE that-- you were in it just for the money. SOUR GRAPES!!!!!!!!!!
I understand she has a constituency that is somewhere right of The Hun. She can never win any general national election. Why is time and effort spent on her other than a freak sideshow.
I would have to agree with Bachmann. And unless you are immigrant, what would you know about it anyway? I'm tired of people who are on this site who are like 4th or 5th generation who think they stand for all immigrants. I come from (legal) immigrant parents and I am a minority. I don't think it is okay for people to break the laws of this country, claim all the free benefits, while at the same time people in the opposite corners of the world have to apply legally( who are already obeying our laws) and are getting turned away. What does this say to the children of these parents? It's okay to break the law if it doesn't suit your agenda? Can these children and parents honestly claim that they are good Americans?
Bachmann's pathetic show is almost over, and she didn't even make it -to- the primary.
The immigration issue has two sides to it.
We can't just send the kids back, but we do need to discourage their parents from bringing them here in the 1st place.
To the guy who said "Mexico is in the middle of a drug war".
^ How do you propose we allow illegal immigrants free reign, while keeping the drug war out??
Obama actually has this issue right - he's working to promote responsible immigration reform, while at the same time upholding the law.
Anyone who thinks that Obama can single handedly make immigration reform happen - in the present political climate is actually demanding that he commit political suicide.
Notice how Hispanic icon Rubio keeps his head low on this issue, and yet he doesn't get dissed by pro illegal immigrant types.
Hypocrites.
I want to know how much in US Taxpayer dollars Michelle Bachman and her fairy sounding husband collected raising the (30) Foster children she is constantly telling us about, and how much of those Taxpayer dollars she actually spent on caring for them as opposed to how much she stuffed in her pockets using it to start her husbands chicken S-H-I-T business which included "Praying the Gay Away" in homosexuals?
And further...we should find these foster children and interview them about their upbringing.
Here ya go!! Wonder no more.
Bachmann and her husband own a Christian counseling practice named Bachmann & Associates,[37][38] which is run by her husband, who has a PhD in clinical psychology from Union Graduate School.[39] Marcus Bachmann is not a licensed psychologist in Minnesota.[40] The clinic received nearly $30,000 from Minnesota government agencies between 2006 and 2010 in addition to at least $137,000 in federal payments and $24,000 in government grants for counselor training.[41] When asked about the subject in an interview, Bachmann indicated that she and her husband had not benefited at taxpayers' expense, saying that "the money that went to the clinic was actually training money for employees".[42] Marcus Bachmann has denied allegations that Bachmann & Associates provides conversion therapy, a controversial psychological treatment repudiated by the American Psychological Association, which attempts to transform homosexuals into heterosexuals.[43][44] A former client of Bachmann's clinic and a hidden camera investigator with the activist group Truth Wins Out have said that therapists at the clinic do engage in such practices,[45][46] although columnist Mariah Blake of The Nation has suggested the hidden camera investigator may have been intentionally baiting the therapist to say something controversial.[43] In a subsequent interview with the Minnesota Star Tribune, Marcus Bachmann did not deny that he or other counselors at his clinic used the technique but said they did so only at the request of a client.[25]
In personal financial disclosure reports for 2006 through 2009, Bachmann reported earning $32,500 to $105,000[42] from a farm that was owned at the time by her ailing father-in-law, Paul Bachmann. The farm received $260,000 in federal crop and disaster subsidies between 1995 and 2008.[47] Bachmann said that in 2006–2009, her husband acted as a trustee of the farm for his dying father and so, out of "an abundance of caution", she claimed the farm as income in financial disclosures, though it was her in-laws who profited from the farm during that period.[48]
Why don't you get off this site if you aren't going to talk about illegal immigrants? No wonder these pages are so long!
Well the key word in this post is ILLEGAL. Be a legal immigrant and you won't have a problem. I personally do not want to hear that some fool thinks I have an obligation to support the children of other countries. I don't consent to that. When anyone brings in a child illegally into this country and uses them to manipulate laws and state and Federal assistance programs. They are stealing from the citizens of this country. I feel it unproductive to reward illegal behavior, it sends the wrong message and sets a precedent.
While Bachmann is about 90% right wing corporate owned theologically demented crazy, I gotta agree with her here. If they are both illegal parents, then the kid doesn't get citizenship. "Anchor baby" is a brutal truth that needs to be ended.
I'd agree, but before I'd make a statement as harsh as yours, I'd want to know are we talking about 90% of the immigrants with "anchor babies" or 10%.. because my bet is this is a minority issue that is discussed simply because it has the words: BABY and IMMIGRANTS and CITIZEN... this is crap on your (our) window.. HIT THE SQUIRT SQUIRT and turn on the WIPER BLADES.. immigrants are NOT leading to our economic problems, education problems and health related problems.. new subject please.
Even if both parents are illegal, if the child is born here he or she is a citizen. It's the 14th Amendment. If you don't like it, change it, but till then that's the way it is.
How's that oath go? I mean the one the President takes to uphold the constitution? Completely off the rails.
Look, it's a dumb rule, born on US soil makes you an American. If you have parents who aren't American the only issue is paper work. Duh?
People come for the work, no work they stay home. Businesses need the labor, can't get it because no one will create a method for them to legally hire the people they need. In civics lessons this is called poor planning? Who's making the rules? 6 8 10 million people working in the US have no legal right to be here? Any idea how many buses you need to transport that many people?
Fix the labor problem, provide immigrant visas for people who want to work, make the process simple so the employers can do the paperwork, send it in with the source tax deductions. Make the employers responsible for health and welfare benefits of the people they sponsor but give them a way to get the people they need to pick the frigging tomatoes!!!!
People thinking of voting for this twit need their heads examined!!!
BEAUTIFUL...! I'm thinking you agree that America THE CONSUMER needs to fight HARD -that is We The People- to become AMERICA THE PRODUCER again. HOW did WE let CHINA become the place that builds damn near every third product in our possession? GREED of a very wealthy class of people begging ELECTED OFFICIALS to let them do what they have done -export LABOR (even white collar labor) overseas so that THEY get rich and the Americans around them -including illegal Americans- have no jobs. Point of fact.. how many customer service centers have you called only to speak to someone potentially in INDIA?? Question 2.. how many people in AMERICA should have these jobs that are being shipped away so the CEO gets wealthy and America bleeds?
I love the way Bachmann talks about here parents being "legal" immigrants, 150 years ago it hardly mattered if you moved across the Atlantic into Canada and then decided to move Maine or New Hampshire etc, no one stopped you and no one cared. And then she goes on to say that her family received no benefits after they immigrated, no one got benefits anyway. What an idiot just like when she said "our Founding Fathers fought hard to end slavery, as in Washington, or Jefferson? She's an idiot
Repubs and the news media sure raise alot of questions about getting rid of anchor babies as them call them. Even thought these children are born here in the United States.
They were more bothered about a radical american muslim who was killed and not given due process. So why not give these anchor babies as you call them due process thru the legal system, since they are american citizens.
Why don't we support the children from other countries too? If that is what you are saying about supporting illegal immigrant's children. They wouldn't be allowed in this country to begin with, so what is the difference?
The illegal aliens have been forced out before during World War II. A nation wide gauntlet using local police and federal agents moved to push the illegals back across the border. These people were given a choice to either return on their own or if caught be deported which is for ever. My grand parents on both sides of my family earned the right to be legal citizens of America. These people had the opportunity to become legal citizens of the United States but choose not to. You get what you pay for and in this case that is nothing. One of you asked the same question I have been asking myself for several years. Why don't they fight for their own country? The people of the United States are proud of our sons and daughters for putting their lives on the line to defend this country and our hard earned right to be free. I would have more respect for these people if they were willing to stand up for their rights in their own country and even be willing to back them up with military action to gain that right. That is why I chose to serve when my time came.
The key words Legal and Illegal immigrants. Did they knock and come through the front door or did they break the side window and illegally enter? It's really that simple. You either do it right or you don't. All the other rational is just BS. Right is right, wrong is wrong. You don't reward illegal actions. If you want more people coming in, raise the quota and let more in. Otherwise enforce the laws, don't play incompetent.
I'm not sure but... I'm thinking you use the phrase "these people" somewhere near 3-4 times. "These people"... Do you understand that for you to color "these people" because of the politicized discussion of immigrants in relation to the minority of the immigrants (from Mexico) is callous reckless and stupid. When you say "these people" what do you see? Do you see Canadians (we have some illegal immigrant Canadians. yes, yes we do.) Do you see people from China? South Korea? EUROPE?... my guess is?? PROBABLY NOT.
SO, you and your "these people" rhetoric -it tells "us people" a lot about WHAT you really are. You are one of "those people" who seem to want to follow a woman -or men, or women- who say things and really believe them, with little to zero facts behind their beliefs. She -and you- believe her immigrant family received NOTHING from the USA when they arrived. You take that bit of information to heart. My honest to god scared to death but right on guess is.. YOU -and I know this is true- have NO CLUE of what America was like 150 years ago. You hear her spout the BS and start going "yeah, yeah.. THESE PEOPLE".. meanwhile, take the time, look at the history books.. 150 years ago, FIRST OF ALL, her family got a lot more than NOTHING when they arrived. Secondly, the contemporary American government was so far from anything in anyone's dreams 150 years ago, that to even respond with such ludicrousness is a sign of INSANITY.
I'm sorry but your post just smells too much like the most heinous problem the USA is facing today; IGNORANCE. You are correct about what the USA did during WWII. We did round up and get rid of "illegals".. For example; if you were here, visiting, on a vacation, and were a GERMAN JEW, you were rounded up and sent back to Germany. THIS is the activity that you are happy to discuss in a positive manner? My bet is you are totally into taking AMERICA back.., right? What is wrong with us today that people are ALLOWED to spout stuff and unlike when we were one of the TOP educated countries on the planet, PEOPLE follow the ignorance because a person "sounds smart". You know who SOUNDS SMART?? ME, to my DAMN DOG!
Bachman shows her talent and her care for the country during this campaining season and she will have a very strong voice in national politic. Some of her viewpoints are really practical and people need to spend time to really understand them.
Please tell us which of her view points you feel are practical. If you just stopped by to generalize please move on.....HUNU is it? sheesh
I'd love to.. but I really avoid following people who live somewhere else. Else meaning another reality. Somewhere where the only history that matters is whatever is created between her *their) ears. I'm sorry but, if you believe what this woman believes "that her family received NOTHING when they came to the USA (paraphrase)", then join her in the land of BS and unreality. That anyone can listen to a person make statements such as that, and STILL find support for someone that unattached to reality is simply amazing.. My bet is that her followers believe that there is a detrimental link between democracy and socialism (one KILLS the other). My bet also is that the writer of the post to which I am replying, and most of the people who dont understand MY POST, believe it as well.. and believe it like they believe in GOD (which is probably not as much as they profess).
I love the revisionist history. Bachman believes, to her amazingly stupid core of her SOUL, that AMERICA gave ZERO to her immigrant family. LOL.."PAUL REVERE WARNED THE BRITISH" (yeah I know thats the late runner but still great (rack) Palin... but the revisionist view of yesterday is the same.)...
The subject is about illegal immigration. Can you not focus? I happen to agree with Bachman and my immigrant parents also agree with me. They first loved this country by obeying its laws, starting with the one to come here legally. Isn't that a show of respect? Secondly, my father served in the Air Force, another aspect of his love for his new country. There is nothing wrong with what she says and anyone who claims to speak for immigrants should not be considered 4th or 5th generation. What do you guys know about it anyway?
Do you mean focus on you and your posts and thoughts? Alot of Latinos are serving in our military now.
I wonder what is the reason that most immigrants are not becoming legal citizens? Could it be the cost?
Latino enlistment in the US Armed Forces is disproportionately high relative to their population in this country. Our anglo kids should be so patriotic.
And, for the record, my son is in the US Marines and he is currently stationed in Camp Lejeune! Semper Fi!
I'm glad for both of you. And I didn't mean just Latinos. There are other immigrants, you know? Or can you only associate illegal immigrants with being hispanic. That shows racism.
My thoughts are my right to speak. I have the right ( I would think more so) then anyone who is an illegal immigrant. If you have a green card, then that is another matter. Oh, and did I fail to mention that I was also a minority?
Think before you speak. That's all I ask.
I did think about it; my thoughts have not changed.
That's not a good sign. It could be why you're unhappy, you know.
It could also be why you're a racist. Your little play on words is getting old. Who picks a stupid name like Sailcat anyway? It doesn't even mean anything!
Oh and by the way, you are not allowed to Up your own remarks.
So that's how it's going to be, then? You can't make a rational case for your hateful ideology and unqualified candidates so you are going to fabricate lies about other people. I think that says far more about you than it does about anything else, little man.
Shame.
You keep bringing up my name, because you have nothing else to say? So is that how its going to be? How can I have hateful ideology if my own parents were immigrants?
Your lies have shown to be nothing more than what is said of the liberal left. Stop spouting what you think you've heard and go by what is actually being said. I think that says a lot about what you believe.
Again, with the name-calling. What is it with you democrats?
"What is it with you democrats?"
I admit that reason and rational thought may seem frightening to your kind, Unhappy, mostly because you are unacquainted with these principles. It's not your fault, though, and I don't hold it against you. You are simply exhibiting the effects of meth, drinking, and inbreeding.
You'll feel better about yourself after Omaba's reelection. Trust me.
I didn't know I had to get familiar with name- calling in order to win an argument. I also didn't know I had to get familiar with your meth, drinking and inbreeding in order to understand a word you say.
You'll notice I didn't mention anything about your schooling also. Goodnight!
We are beyond arguing, Unhappy. We are just trying to establish the reasons behind your benighted thought processes at this point. Maybe tomorrow morning when you sober up you feel differently.
G'night!
You still need to work on your spelling.
You have more important problems to worry about, Unhappy, like where you're going to find work after the circus leaves town. Good luck with that!
Illegal immigrants and their children should be deported outright. End of conversation.
If the child is an American citizen you cannot deport. Our founding fathers were especially against exile. You must first strip the person of citizenship then deport. Costs about $30,000 per person so have at it since we have so much money to waste.
Illegal speeders should have their licenses revoked outright, end of conversation.
Fortunately, that is not how the Constitution and the laws of the US work. You can snivel and whine all you want, the you cannot revoke anyone's citizenship like a drivers license.
To protect you from making further posts that expose your embarrassing lack of knowledge about the Constitution and legal processes of the US, you might want to take a high school course or two in US History and Government.
Hopes this helps!
Obama has less balls than the ever-efussive Bachmann! Look it up, liberal First Read! It means outgoing, which of course our Milato President isn't. Must come from his Marxist father's training. And I don't mean the elder Mr Obama!
I can't believe how many people keep saying this sort of thing. In the 1850s, all you had to do to come here "legally" was buy a boat ticket and pass a TB test.
Tell everyone who's not here legally to return to Mexico or face jail. Cancel Mexican immigration for five years. Kick everyone out of school, provide no benefits, and make English the only language spoken. Build the fence and put a dusk to dawn curfew on the border. They'll stop coming after you shoot a few. If it's run it like a war zone, the problem will resolve itself.
In general, at this moment, if you have pride you should stay in your country to make it better unless you are under political pressure. I think any ancestors on earth do not want to see their offsprings to go everywhere looking or begging for food like during the primitive era. They rather to see their offsprings making their land a respectful place on earth with lots of development and innovation in many areas including education and economy. So to offsprings fail to do this, it is waste of time to talk to them. Either you open your arm to give them food or kick them out.
The next election is about a question, posed by the Republican pary, which is whether the US is going to fall into a lock step into the deep lunatic fringes of right wing extremism. The Tea Party movement failed miserably because it began with high hopes that it would be a party of governmental reform but it quickly devolved into just another bunch of bickering right wing blithering idiots, exemplified by such luminaries as O'Donnell, Palin, Bachmann, Perry, and others too despicable to mention. The GOP is being dragged down beneath the waves of public approval along with the Tea Party because they embraced the TP as its hope for a new, re-energized Republican Party but now they have discovered they are hugging a political anchor that is taking them down with it. The polls prove it with numbers that make Obama's look positively incandescent, and the Republican Party debates have pushed the TP's failure right into America's living rooms. Now the hopes of the GOP are dwindling fast and the choices are between a pizza chain manager and a less-than-successful ex-governor who has been saddled up and ridden all around town by the other wannabe Republican candidates because of his religion. Not an auspicious start to the primaries, much less a presidential election, is it?
The GOP has failed before they started. It will be Obama in 2012 by default. America is holding an election and the Republican Party just isn't going to show up!
Read 'em and weep.
supersmooth3
"He complains that President Obama abandoned the DREAM Act"
sweet! i did not know that before. im a democrat but ive always been against immigration. good to hear!!!!!!
Kids .children Brought here by there parents are innocent victims , AND many know no other country or life , we must find a path to citizen ship for these people , they are American in heart mind and soul , To punish them for the illegal actions of their parents is an absurdity , this would in all reality leave them with out a country ,
PERSONALLY I think the solution is a simple one , if one has attended American public schools ,graduated from American public schools there is a record , provide this record to any immigration office , and grant citizenship
The problem is that our country is divided on the Immigration issue , with the Majority of Americans demanding border security first ,before any discussion on immigration issues , Obama has refused to secure our borders , and Until our borders are secure the Majority of Americans will not be open or supportive of any Immigration solutions ,
WITH this understanding Michele is correct in stating that She would do nothing as the American people would not support it ,
All the name calling etc has never solved a problem and has never provided a solution IN FACT it adds to the problems of our country , because it interferes with those who are providing intelligent, civil conversations about the problems discussing solutions for the problem
One thing I do agree with her on is "we do not owe law breakers anything". She is right! The kids are unfortunetly caught up in the mess, if the constitution was followed, they would not be here because their parents would not come here to have them! Follow the law, it is written.
Love the... "We do not owe the Law Breakers anything" Why is this so hard to understand?
Latinos are not the only ones breaking immigration laws, we have mucho illegals from eastern Europe and Asia. Bachmann in this instance echoed the sentiments of a great number of other Americans who obey the laws and pay their taxes. If one law is not to be obeyed, why should we obey any?