This weekend, hundreds of tea party activists gathered at the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona to protest illegal immigration. The crowd yelled “Hey, don’t come over here anymore” across the border. Although President Obama signed into law last week a bipartisan bill to provide $600 million toward increasing security around the U.S.-Mexico border, partly to widen the conversation on immigration reform, the tea partiers and Republican lawmakers in Arizona remained focused on the border.
Likewise, Republican campaign challengers this year so far show no interest in supporting comprehensive reforms:
Several speaking to the crowd of more than 400 demanded Congress and President Barack Obama devote more resources to increase border security in remote areas like the site of Sunday’s demonstration southeast of Tucson.
“We are going to force them to do it, because if they don’t, we will not stop screaming,” said former state Sen. Pam Gorman, one of 10 Republicans vying for an open congressional seat in north Phoenix. Gorman carried a handgun in a holster slung over her shoulder as she mingled with demonstrators.
At the same rally, J.D. Hayworth, who is challenging Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in the Republican primary, said he would help “put an end to amnesty once and for all, to secure our borders, to end any of this misguided talk about open borders.”
The Obama administration has not proposed open borders, and regularly touts its high levels of enforcement.
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