Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Eaton: citizenship for ordinary immigrants; won't sign "worthless" English-only laws

Former Nashville mayoral candidate and current U.S. Senate candidate Kenneth Eaton was interviewed by The Greeneville Sun, speaking about a variety of topics including immigrants and the laws that relate to them. While mostly aligning himself with the more statesmanlike politicians in this field, Eaton does use insensitive language in the interview:

Statesman:

[T]hose whose only crime is illegal immigration that are productive workers should be allowed citizenship.
...
I support English as the official language of the United States, but I will not sign my name to worthless legislation that actually would infringe upon the rights of those who speak English as a second language.

Insensitive:

Eaton used the word "illegal" as a noun, a usage which has been widely condemned (see story here).

When Eaton was a mayoral candidate, the Hispanic Nashville Notebook judged his performance at a immigrant-focused forum as "Best Use of Humor" (story here).

(Eagle-eyed RSS subscribers will have noticed that this post was originally bestowed with a more simplistic draft title, "Eaton good on immigration." Hitting "publish" when you are just drafting will do that to you.)

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