Carl Paladino, a conservative candidate for New York Governor, said today that current Gov. David Paterson (D) is “playing ethnic politics at its worst” with his criticism of Arizona’s controversial immigration law.
A Paladino campaign press release called Paterson’s response to the law “gutless” and “shrill,” after the Governor said that he was “highly disappointed” in the passage of the law, and suggested that the Arizona law was “founded in panic and hysteria.”
In the release, Paladino said:
Instead of seizing his Constitutional powers as Governor to solve New York’s growing immigration problem, David Paterson is playing ethnic politics at its worst. He’s trying to appeal to the millions of illegals in this country the Obama administration hopes to make citizens, voters and Democrats in time for the next election.
Gov. Patterson and many other gutless professional politicians can’t even stop the illegal trade in construction jobs that should be going to New York citizens. Local policing agencies and elected officials must enforce the law and, as Governor, I would make that happen.
My Father was an immigrant; my wife’s forebears were immigrants. Legal immigration helped make this country great. Legal immigration will continue to add to the strength of this nation. But I am completely opposed to any form of amnesty or other solution aimed to absorb illegal immigrants into the fabric of America for political purposes.
Paladino recently came under heavy criticism for sending a series of racist and sexually graphic e-mails to a large number of associates.
