At the Republican US Senate debate on Sunday, former Attorney General Dan Sullivan, Lt. Governor Mead Treadwell and tea party favorite Joe Miller spoke on many topics. However, one moment was particularly heated when Miller presented the other two with a letter.
A member of the debate panel asked Miller about a mailer Miller sent out on immigration featuring images of menacing tattooed Hispanic gang members and the caption “Begich wants them to vote.” The panelist asked why use those pictures to illustrate illegal immigration, Miller responded that he thought it was the right image to use.
“It’s for our children and it’s because it’s the truth. Ted Cruz talked to Chris Wallace on Face the Nation, where he described the gangs coming in. Abusing sexually children, forcing children to cut off other children’s fingers. The trafficking that’s going on right now is being caused by in part this, this is real world stuff. Talk to folk down at the southern border. Even in this state we have an issue. The Obama administration flying illegals to the state.”
Miller was referring to the five unaccompanied minors that were brought to Alaska. However, those five were not brought up by the Obama administration-- they have family members sponsoring them to be in the country.
Although all three candidates believe that the Obama administration and the current Congress missed the mark when it comes to immigration reform, Treadwell did mention his dislike for the flyer Miller sent out.
“I’m going to say this, if you got a flyer in your mail box, it may not be all true. You’ve gotten some from Mr. Sullivan which I know aren’t true, and I don’t think that’s true and I don’t think that’s an appropriate picture. The immigration problem is a real problem, we need to secure the border and frankly Congress spent all summer trying to figure out how much money we could get for shelters for these kids rather than changing the law, taking away the 2008 loop hole and sending them home.”
Miller asked that Treadwell and Sullivan sign a pledge to oppose all efforts of “amnesty” for illegal immigrants if elected to the US Senate. Sullivan said although he does not support amnesty, he doesn’t agree with the letter.
“But what your pledge is doing is saying what you won’t do. What I’ve been talking about in regards to immigration is what we need to do. We need to first, as I talked about earlier, secure our borders, we need to enforce the laws. And I do believe that this administration has moved forward in a way that is creating part of the problem by indicating that they won’t enforce the laws. And that is a problem. And that relates to amnesty.”
Treadwell had already refused to sign the letter the week before when Miller had it sent to his office. According to Real Clear Politics, Sullivan is in the lead for the republican nomination at 33.5 percent, with Treadwell following at 26 percent and Miller at 17.5 percent.