Wisconsin governor is at odds with other GOP candidates on issue.
By Raif Karerat
WASHINGTON, DC: Scott Walker, the governor of Wisconsin and frontrunner for the Republican presidential nod, seems to have thrown caution to the winds and completely reversed his position on immigration policy.
It was only two years ago that Walker bolstered a plan that would offer undocumented immigrants in the U.S. a way to become full-fledged citizens. However, he abandoned his previously held stance during an interview on Fox News.
On Monday, in an interview with Glenn Beck, Walker burned additional bridges by suggesting even legal immigration may be detrimental to the wages of domestically-born workers.
“In terms of legal immigration, how we need to approach that going forward is saying—the next president and the next Congress need to make decisions about a legal immigration system that’s based on, first and foremost, on protecting American workers and American wages,” he stated. “It is a fundamentally lost issue by many in elected positions today—is what is this doing for American workers looking for jobs, what is this doing to wages, and we need to have that be at the forefront of our discussion going forward.”
The Post reported Liz Nair, a former aide to Walker, called his reversal a “full, Olympics-quality flip-flop,” while Slate noted his status as “a conservative superstar with major backing,” and that when he pontificates “other candidates listen.”
However, the governor’s remarks now position him to the right of much of the primary GOP field, and the paradigm shift has not gone over well with some of the party’s top strategists, according to Time. They “believe a more inclusive approach to immigration is both sound policy and smart politics.”
The news magazine also revealed Walker’s posturing may have alienated some of the GOP’s most influential donors and thinkers, an elite group that can make or break a right-wing presidential hopeful.
“You do not want to be in a position where you build up a track record of moving around on issues,” disclosed an unnamed Republican consultant to Time. “It’s absolutely fatal.”