Right fights back on immigration
Conservative activists have launched an election-year effort to get Republicans to sign a pledge that renounces President Obama's immigration reform movement.
Critics of the Senate-passed immigration bill are copying a tactic that has proved wildly successful in battling tax increases.
It is modeled on the concept that anti-tax activist Grover Norquist made famous with the Taxpayer Protection Pledge.
Laura Ingraham, a popular conservative radio host, is squarely behind the effort, which is sponsored by the Federation for American Immigration Reform Congressional Task Force.She is tracking which members of Congress and candidates sign the pledge.
In Mississippi, state Sen. Chris McDaniel, who is challenging Sen. Thad Cochran in the Republican primary, this week announced his support for the pledge during an appearance on Ingrahams show.
I did sign it and I believe in it, he told her. I think its time for us to focus on the America worker for a change. That should be our focus.
What weve seen over the last many years is wage stagnation, weve seen growth in welfare programs, weve even seen shrinking workforce participation, he added.
The pledge requires that signatories promise to oppose any form of work authorization for the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants living in United States. It binds them to oppose legislation that would increase the number of legal immigrants allowed in the country and reject proposals to increase the number of guest workers.
New York Assemblywoman Claudia Tenney, who is challenging Rep. Richard Hanna in the Republican primary in New Yorks 22nd Congressional District, has signed it. So have three Republicans running in the primary to replace retiring Rep. Spencer Bachus (R) in Alabamas 6th District.
Cochran told The Hill Thursday that he would have to read the immigration pledge carefully before making a decision.
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Right fights back on immigration