As we endured the violent rhetoric of health care last year, it appears we could enter the same atmosphere with the immigration debate. Yes, Alabama State Senator Scott Beason really said
“
The illegals are always praised for sending money back home, ‘they are so great’, ‘such family people’,” he said. “But why is it right for them to send billions of dollars home, before they even try to buy some health insurance here that you and I pay for— it doesn’t make them sound so wonderful does it? They’re basically saying, no we’re going to keep the money and you’re going to pay for what I need.”
Beason ended his speech by advising Republicans to “empty the clip, and do what has to be done”.
In light of the Arizona shootings, barely a month fresh, we thought our political leaders would have toned down the language. Guess that was too much to ask for in Scott Beasons case. I've been keeping an eye on Beason for a couple years and he's one that certainly scares me in his tone concerning immigration and other right-wing causes.
h/t to Mooncat at Left in Alabama who also wrote a diary about this issue and added the following information about Mr. Beason ( Alabama's new Joe McCarthy)
According to his campaign website, Beason not only sponsored a bill to make penalties tougher on illegal immigrants, but he's also been down the Tim James "English only" road, sponsoring bills to make English the official language of Alabama and only give the driver's license exam in English. Definitely pandering to the far right. Still, it's remarkable that he would be so brazen as to say "empty the clip and do what has to be done," even to a Republican crowd in Cullman.
As our Senator, Scott Beason sponsored bills:
to protect Alabamians from Obamacare – SB-233
to allow the people to vote to make ALL gambling in Alabama illegal
to require the Alabama Driver’s license exam to be given in English only
to return property appraisals to every 4 years instead of annually
to make penalties tougher on illegal immigrants
to mandate that Jefferson County hire a County Manager
to protect the rights of the unborn
to remove the state tax on groceries without raising other taxes
that would require English as the official language of Alabama
to ban tax payer subsidized benefits for same-sex couples
to prohibit felons from voting
Not only are some in the political spectrum refusing to tone down the rhetoric and violent metaphors on health care reform, they are actually encouraging it on hot button issues.
Beason also seems to be stretching his claims of the local authorities being burdened by illegal immigration
"The reality is that if you allow illegal immigration to continue in your area you will destroy yourself eventually,” said Beason. “If you don’t believe illegal immigration will destroy a community go and check out parts of Alabama around Arab and Albertville.”
After hearing the senator’s take on Albertville’s illegal immigrant problem, mayor Lindsey Lyons said that he felt the assessment was harsh.
“I think that is going a little overboard to say that this has destroyed our community (Alberville),” Lyons said in a follow up telephone interview. “But, it has created a lot of challenges for us and we would love to see legislation that tackles the issue. I think that we are going to see that representatives from our area will be very eager to work with Senator Beason on this issue.”
Arab mayor Gary Beam said that he had not seen an extreme immigration problem in his city.
“We don’t have the type of industry in Arab that usually attracts a lot of illegal workers to an area,” he said. “I know there is an illegal immigration problem in this country, but Arab is not an area that has been devastated by this.”
Beason and others don't care about the effects of their faux outrage. They know the political climate and are simply trying to further their own agendas.