Jerry Brown - Meg Whitman debate: Immigration
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Meg Whitman was asked again about her employment of an undocumented immigrant for more than nine years.
‘If you couldn’t find someone in your home was undocumented or illegal, how do you expect businesses to do it?’ asked moderator Tom Brokaw.
Whitman called for an ‘e-verify system’ to make sure the documents presented by immigrants are valid. She said she wants to give more resources to secure the nation’s border and restart a guest-worker program. She also talked about her opposition to Arizona’s controversial immigration law.
Jerry Brown said it was a federal responsibility and that asking local police officers to raid businesses was a waste of time.
‘The biggest problem here is we have millions of people who are here illegally. They’re in the shadows,’ Brown said, calling for comprehensive federal immigration reform that includes a path to citizenship for workers who are in the country illegally but otherwise play by the rules.
Brown said Whitman’s firing of Niccandra Diaz Santillan was ‘kind of a sorry tale,’ noting that ‘after nine years, she didn’t even get her a lawyer.’
-- Anthony York in San Rafael, Calif.
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