GOP talks immigration reform in Spanish, but not English
After Republicans sent mixed signals on immigration in their two official rebuttals to President Barack Obamas State of the Union address, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus struggled to explain the disparity on MSNBCs Morning Joe Wednesday.
Iowa Sen. Joni Ernsts State of the Union rebuttal made no mention of the topic, but the Spanish-language version of the rebuttal, delivered by Florida Rep. Carlos Curbelo, said Republicans wanted to work with Obama to fix the immigration system.
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I dont think its that strange to have multiple people giving multiple responses, Priebus said Wednesday on the show.
But earlier on Tuesday, House Republicans had described Curbelos response as the Spanish-Language translated address of Sen. Joni Ernst response. That language was later removed from the release, according to Mother Jones.
When asked why Ernsts English-language response made no mention of the issue, Priebus responded, I think the presidents kind of screwed things up in regards to immigration reform by overreaching, by taking his executive action.
When pressed further on how that explained the disparity, Priebus said, I think weve been talking about this executive amnesty action that the presidents taken illegally for a long time and I think until that gets resolved its very difficult to go back and conduct any other kind of immigration reform. Look, Im not the policy guy.
Speaking in Spanish Tuesday night, Curbelo said, We should also work through the appropriate channels to create permanent solutions for our immigration system, to secure our borders, modernize legal immigration, and strengthen our economy. In the past, the president has expressed support for ideas like these. Now we ask him to cooperate with us to get it done.
Curbelo has bucked many in the Republican Party to support a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, while Ernst opposes that.
In an interview after the speech, Curbelo said he chose to focus on immigration as well as other issues personally important to him such as education and Cuba aside from the partys broader economic message that was reflected in Ernsts rebuttal.
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GOP talks immigration reform in Spanish, but not English