New York Times
By Jonathan Martin
July 6, 2015
Last
Wednesday, Stephen Moore, a scholar at the Heritage Foundation who is
an outspoken supporter of an immigration overhaul, described a recent
telephone call with Gov.
Scott Walker of Wisconsin, in which he said Mr. Walker had assured him
he had not completely renounced his earlier support for a pathway to
citizenship for illegal immigrants.
“‘I’m
not going nativist, I’m pro-immigration,’” Mr. Walker said, according
to Mr. Moore’s account of the call to a reporter for The New York Times.
On
Sunday, after three days of pressure from Mr. Walker’s aides, Mr. Moore
said that he had “misspoken” when recounting his call with Mr. Walker —
and that the call had
never actually taken place.
The
turnabout by Mr. Moore came after he was quoted Thursday in a Times
article detailing Mr. Walker’s shifts on immigration, same-sex marriage
and ethanol subsidies to
protect his early lead in Iowa, where he is facing a well-financed
challenge from Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, among other rivals.
Mr.
Walker said in 2013 that he supported a pathway to citizenship for
illegal immigrants. But he said in March that he had changed his mind,
and now only backed stronger
enforcement of the American border. Taking the more hawkish stance on
immigration aligned him with some conservatives in the Republican
primary electorate, notably in Iowa; it put him at odds with supporters
of an immigration overhaul, who include Mr. Moore
and a group he helps run, the Committee to Unleash Prosperity.
In
the interview on Wednesday in which he had recounted Mr. Walker’s
assurances that he was “not going nativist,” Mr. Moore said their
conversation had occurred in “the
last three or four weeks.” Asked if it had been in person or on the
phone, Mr. Moore said: “I chatted with him on the phone.”
The
article detailing Mr. Walker’s shifts in his positions, including Mr.
Moore’s account of his conversation with the governor, was published
online early Thursday morning.
Mr.
Walker’s advisers contacted Mr. Moore about his comments in The Times
article that afternoon, one of them said the following day. Walker aides
were also apparently
receiving inquiries from the conservative Breitbart News website, which
on Friday night posted an article in which Mr. Moore recanted his
account of the conversation with Mr. Walker.
But
it was not until Sunday afternoon that Mr. Moore emailed this reporter
to say he had “miscommunicated something to you in our interview.”
“The
conversation that Scott Walker had on immigration wasn’t with me but
one of the principals of our Committee to Unleash Prosperity,” Mr. Moore
wrote. “In that conversation
it became clear that as I said ‘he is not going in a nativist position
on immigration.’ ”
Mr.
Moore wrote that he had also personally talked to Mr. Walker about
immigration in person earlier this year at a dinner put on by the
committee, which is dedicated
to promoting supply-side economics and a comprehensive immigration
overhaul.
Setting
aside the more recent phone call, Mr. Moore said he stood by his belief
that Mr. Walker “was not going in a nativist direction on immigration.”
So, what exactly is Mr. Walker’s current position on immigration?
Asked
if he supported any path to citizenship or legal status for illegal
immigrants, Mr. Walker’s spokeswoman, AshLee Strong, did not directly
respond. “The governor
has made it clear that the immigration system is broken and we need to
secure the border, enforce our laws, and have a legal immigration system
in place that is good for the economy, working families, and wages,”
she said in an email Monday. (In response to
a query for the Thursday article about Mr. Moore’s conversation with
Mr. Walker, Ms. Strong insisted that the governor was “not for
amnesty.”)
This
is the second time this year that Mr. Walker has been reported as
saying privately that he was open to an immigration overhaul beyond
measures to address the border,
only to have his aides later deny such assertions were made.
In
March, The Wall Street Journal reported that Mr. Walker said at a
private dinner with New Hampshire Republicans that he was open to
letting illegal immigrants eventually
obtain American citizenship. Mr. Walker’s aides disputed that account
as well.
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
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