Close The Borders - Governator

The San Francisco Chronicle has the story of California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's plea to the federal government to faithfully enforce federal immigration law:

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger urged federal officials to beef up enforcement and secure the state's borders against illegal immigrants, saying Tuesday they must clean up a "lax situation" instead of "trying to run the other way."

"Close the borders. Close the borders in California, and all across Mexico and the United States," Schwarzenegger told hundreds of newspaper publishers at Newspaper Association of American convention the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco.

"Because I think it is just unfair to have all of those people coming across, and to have the borders open the way it is," the California governor said. "We in California have to still finish the border. That is the key thing -- to have borders and to keep the law, enforce the law."

Margita Thompson, the governor's press secretary, immediately explained that Schwarzenegger has long supported more border security and his statements to "close the border" did not mean to suggest that the governor -- himself an immigrant to the United States -- advocates an end to legal immigration.

Democrats were quick to react to the governor's statement with outrage. Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez issued a statement saying Schwarzenegger should "ratchet down this rhetoric and retreat from this narrow-minded approach to immigration."

Núñez argued that the idea reflects the approach of "political extremists, not rational policy-makers,'" and said that "even President Bush rejects the idea of a closed border with Mexico."

The governor's statements were part of an address to newspaper executives, in which he stalwartly defended his proposed reform agenda, confidently joked about protesters who still dog his tracks, and even continued to tout his withdrawn pension reform ideas.

On illegal immigration, Schwarzenegger -- asked about solutions -- said that "It's a national issue. There's not much we can do here in California."

But he said he supported the idea "to look at all the proposals that are on the table" regarding guest workers, those who enter the country legally each year to work in industries such as agriculture and tourism.

"The Bush administration has talked about what we should do with the people that are undocumented and what we should do about guest workers programs, all of those things," the governor said. "This is a very important debate. It's necessary that we solve the problems, rather than everyone, kind of, trying to run the other way because it's such a hot issue...."

Read the rest here.

Illegal immigration is killing the California economy and makes the Governator's task to balance the California budget more than difficult.... it is impossible (ask recalled former California Governor Gray Davis).

Governor Arnold is staking out the main issue which will differentiate himself from the numerous Democrat candidates grooming themselves for the 2006 gubernatorial elections.

President Bush's policies are wrong for California and wrong for the Governator and California Republicans. Republicans cannot run on and support Bush's Guest Worker program - it rewards illegal behavior and will further bankrupt the state.

Watch the Terminator distance himself further from the President and national Republican leadership.