Eric Greitens Quotes
We need to make sure we're making a distinction between violent felons who are in this country illegally and children who were brought here through no fault of their own, who have grown up here in America.
Greitens, Eric. Missouri Gubernatorial Debate, 2016.
He introduced his bill that would provide Amnesty for many undocumented immigrants--oven called "illegal aliens". He started the "Dreamers"-the 2 million children who were brought to America at very young ages by parents who did not enter legally. They have grown up in America and it is the only home they have ever known. Many do not even speak or are not literate in the language of their birth country and their only roots and allegiances are to the United States. There was a very loud and passionae minority of South Carolina voters who wanted these children to be departed to countries most have no memories or knowledge of--to punsh them for the "sins" of their parents.
JOUAM was a nativist workingmen's organization founded in 1853 to resist the competition for jobs from immigration. See related quote for membership criteria. At its peak it had over 200,000 members. “Mechanics” was the term used for a wide variety of skilled craftsmen from plumbers to bricklayers. JOUAM is the oldest fraternal order in America.
This view is particularly ironic in that Italian immigrants to the U. S. have historically been unfairly associated with organized crime in Italy and America.
This is an example of a politican exaggerating a problem by conveying the false impression that undoumented immigrants (more pejoritively "illegal aliens") are a danger becaue they murder Americans. THey do but at no greater rates, than American citiizens murder each other.
The illegal alien problem had vexed Republican and Democratic Administrations for over 50 years and is one of the most complicated of all the problems facing the nation. She offered the voters a simple solution.
At that time the Republicans had adopted a political strategy of not passing any significant legislation so that they could claim the Democratic President Barack Obama could not lead or do anything. They were committed to limiting Obama to one term. The Republicans controlled the House and had enough Senators to filibuster anything that happened in the Senate. During that period, there was hardly any legislation passed—one of the lowest points of Congressional paralysis and partisanship in American history.
Clyburn was the Democratic whip of the House. He was opposed to his party’s initial position on Immigration Reform. What he and many others who opposed “amnesty” did agree to was a scheme where undocumented immigrants who had broken the law were declared guilty, paid a fine, and had their application for citizenship delayed for some years. Others who opposed amnesty saw this alternative as amnesty if citizenship would ever be granted to an “illegal alien”. The latter group were all Republicans who also believed that immigrants tended to vote Democratic once they became citizens.
The Governor had sent the Federal Government a bill for $118 million to cover the cost of medical, educational, and other social services for illegal aliens.
At the time, many people referred to immigrants who had entered the United States without the proper documentation or by contravening our laws were referred to as “illegals” or “illegal immigrants”. Bank robbers and rapists were never referred to as “illegals”—only immigrants. Carroll and others pointed out that there was no such thing as an “illegal person”—only illegal acts.
Eric Robert Greitens is an American politician, author, and former Navy SEAL who was the 56th governor of Missouri from January 2017 until his resignation in June 2018. He was the first Jewish governor of Missouri.
