Speed Gibson

Remember the Minneapolis Star Tribune's Christmas present to Prime Minister Pawlenty, the "analysis" that characterized him as a "man of big ideas but little followup"? They listed this (2005/2006):

Big idea: Proposes broad action to deny services to illegal immigrants.
Result: No significant change in state policy.

There's more to this story.

Give him a break, you say? He just signed an executive order on this, didn't he? Yes he did, but it was long overdue.

I'm reorganizing my hard drive, and came across my archive of Taxpayer's League Live on KTLK-FM. Someday maybe I'll put together a CD or two of "The Best of David Strom: The FM Year" but for now, I thought I'd listen to their first show while dragging files into their new folders. Less than ten minutes into the show, I heard this:

David Strom: Let's talk about what is probably the opening shot of the Governor's race. In fact, both Mike Hatch and Tim Pawlenty have come out with their opening shots this week for their campaign themes in the Governor's race. Tim Pawlenty really brought up a very interesting topic. He's brought out the illegal immigration issue and he's really pushing this very hard and I think he's done a brilliant job doing this because he's put his opponents in a box. He's talking a really hard core game about going after illegal immigration and doing something about it, but there's not one proposal that he has in there that isn't absolutely 100 percent totally common sensical.

Margaret Martin: He's really taken on the mayors of both Minneapolis and St. Paul, with the attempt to get rid of their sanctuary policy about not allowing illegal immigrants to be raided, basically allowing them to live there without having to worry about being arrested by at least local officials. They can't do anything about the INS, obviously.

David: I just think this is brilliant, though. This is absolutely brilliant. There are just not that many people who live in the United States of America who think it ought to be the policy of local lawmakers to say "you can break this set of laws in our territory and do without any fear of repercussions." That's essentially what these sancutary laws say. Pawlenty isn't saying that he's going to turn the cops in Minneapolis and St. Paul into immigration officials. He isn't saying that they're going to be required to go out and seek illegal immigrants and try to kick them out. All he said is that he does not want any municipalities in the State of Minnesota to prevent any law enforcement officials from asking about your immigration status.

Margaret: He also wants law enforcement officials to document someone's immigration status at the time of arrest, making that part of this process.

David: Let's say Moussaoui who was here in Eagan, at a flight school, [...] gets pulled over for a traffic violation. His visa is expired. Why is it a policeman should not even be able to ask about that, which is a policy in the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul?

(Edited for clarity.)

I had to recheck everything. Maybe it was 2008, not 2006 I was listening to. Not, the timestamps check and it's in stereo and the Governor's race is on against Mike Hatch. This was broadcast January 7, 2006.

At least he signed the Executive Order this time, possibly because of the GOP convention coming here this fall.