Opinion: Congressional candidate says illegal immigrants should have microchips embedded, likens group to dogs

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Oops! This one’s gonna be a favorite of MSNBC for a while...

Iowa congressional candidate Pat Betroche kinda stepped in it while discussing immigration issues earlier this week. Tougher border security can certainly play well at a Republican forum, but when you compare illegal immigrants to dogs and suggest putting microchips in them, you may not come across all that well.

Update: Betroche told the Ticket that he does not support embedding microchips in humans and, due to time constraints, was unable to explain that he was merely offering a ‘critical social commentary on how inane and radical the discussion has become regarding the immigration issue.’ His full statement is at the bottom of the post.

While speaking at the GOP gathering on Monday, Betroche, a doctor, said his prescription for fixing the illegal immigrant problem in the U.S. is simple: “I think we should catch ’em, we should document ’em, make sure we know where they are and where they are going. I actually support microchipping them. I can microchip my dog so I can find it. Why can’t I microchip an illegal?’

Give it to Betroche, however. His astute political radar was going off even while saying it. “That’s not a popular thing to say, but it’s a lot cheaper than building a fence they can tunnel under,” he said.

Dadgummit! Turns out he was right. His comments are unpopular -- and viral. And just like the cartoonist who backed away from her Everybody Draw Muhammad Day idea once it became controversial, he’s doing the same thing.
Turns out he didn’t mean to say he ‘actually supports microchipping them.’ In fact, what he meant to say, apparently, was actually just the opposite, and he doesn’t know how that dog comparison happened.

‘I don’t support microchipping anybody, and it also didn’t occur to me I was comparing dogs to illegal immigrants,’ he said in an interview Tuesday.

So why’d he say it? He was trying to ‘illustrate a social commentary on how radical’ the issue has become.

And good news for amnesty supporters: He’s softened up a bit. In the same interview, he acknowledged that ‘shooting them at the border is radical’ too.Full statement by Betroche: First, I want to say that I was quoted accurately in The Gazette Online. However, due to time and not withing to be rude, I was not able to complete my statement, which would have made it clear it was a critical social commentary on how inane and radical the discussion has become regarding the immigration issue. Ideas ranging from fences to shooting everyone as they cross the border have been proposed. The Soviets, Chinese, and Nazis all built walls to try to control the flow of the population. They all failed. Right now, the Mexicans simply dig underneath our walls and fences. In fact, one rancher in Arizona put a gate into the fence with signs pointing the way so he wouldn’t have to repair it so often.

In India and Africa, they brand and mark the undesirables. That approach does not work either. Amnesty has already been tried by Pres. Reagan, and that has failed.

In India, they have a caste of people called the Untouchables. We are creating the same kind of caste here with illegal immigrants. At what point do we stop with the political ideologies, and start discussing common sense solutions? How many more boxcars full of dead immigrants do we need before we start addressing, in realistic terms, this tsunami of human slavery? How many more torn and broken families do we need before we agree to address, in practical terms, the magnitude of human misery created by illegal immigration?

I do not support micro-chipping humans. And I did not mean to compare illegal immigrants to dogs. I am listening to people’s ideas on this issue. I have a internet radio show every Friday from 2-4pm, “The Reasonable Republican”, on www.desmoinesamplified.com, where we discuss timely issues.

-- Jimmy Orr

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