On the heels of word breaking about Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., claiming the president is holding hostage efforts to secure the nation's southern boundary, a spokesman has called "unserious" a question about federal criticism of Arizona's efforts on immigration enforcement.
The issue developed at today's White House news briefing, where Bill Burton was responding to questions.
Les Kinsolving, WND's correspondent at the White House, asked, "Considering the high unemployment rate among black American citizens, why is the Obama administration opposing Arizona's effort to stop the invasion of Hispanic illegal aliens, so many of whom have come to obtain U.S. jobs?"
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"I could give you a serious answer to an unserious question. But I’m going to take a pass on this," Burton responded.
Kinsolving replied: "It's a serious question. It's very serious in Arizona, isn’t it?"
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"Immigration is indeed a serious issue in Arizona and for all the folks who live along the border and all over this country," Burton said.
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"And the president thinks that the best way forward here is a comprehensive approach to immigration reform. It includes making sure that we're securing the border, and it includes making sure that we deal with all the different elements that are important in this debate. It's not just one specific issue. He is not doing it for one particular group. He is doing it, because he thinks that if we're going to be a nation of laws, if we're going to be a nation that is protecting our border, if we're going to be a nation that has common sense about the way it takes on this issue, then we need comprehensive immigration reform."
As WND reported, Kyl accused Obama of holding "hostage" efforts to secure the nation's border with Mexico because he wants to get something in return, a statement that has the White House frantically calling the longtime Arizona Republican a liar.
White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer issued a statement to Fox News stating, "The president didn't say that and Sen. Kyl knows it."
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The dispute erupted over the weekend with Kyl's appearance before the North Tempe, Ariz., Tea Party town hall where he described the one-on-one meeting with Obama.
"I met with the president in the Oval Office … just the two of us," Kyl said. "We had a discussion. Here's what the president said. The problem is, the president said, if we secure the border, then you-all won't have any reason to support comprehensive immigration reform.
"In other words, they're holding it hostage," Kyl said, prompting gasps in the room. "They don't want to secure the border unless and until it is combined with comprehensive immigration reform."
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He told the tea-party group he reminded the president that both have an obligation to secure the border.
"You don't have to have comprehensive reform to secure the border but you have to secure the border to get comprehensive reform," Kyl said. He said he told the president he may not think there are other incentives, and, "I'm not so sure that that's true.
Ryan Patmintra, a spokesman for Kyl, said the senator was not backing down.
"There were two people in that meeting, and Dan Pfeiffer was not one of them," he told Fox. "Sen. Kyl stands by his remarks, and the White House spokesman's pushback that you must have comprehensive immigration reform to secure the border only confirms Sen. Kyl's account."
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