A rookie Republican lawmaker was asked to resign over some negative comments the serviceman made about immigration. The Prescott lawmaker in question was Rep. David Stringer. On Monday, Stringer spoke to the Republican Men’s Forum in Prescott and made some controversial comments. They ended up on Facebook Live, raising the ire of the GOP.
What landed the novice politician in hot water was that he declared immigration “represents an existential threat to the United States.” Stringer continued to heed warning that America needs to stop letting immigrants in. He implied that immigrants that do not come from European countries have trouble with, and never fully, assimilate into the American way of life.
Stringer continued to bury himself insinuating that there are too many Hispanic kids in schools. With a 60% “minority” population in Prescott schools, Stringer implied the schools struggle because “there aren’t enough white kids to go around.”
As he pursued his ideas, Stringer noted that Anglo parents tend to either enroll their children in private or charter schools. In extreme cases, these Caucasians would move out of Prescott.
On Wednesday, the lawmaker didn’t seem to back pedal much in his interview with Capitol Media Services. He said his comments were “taken out of context and distorted by omission.”
He also acknowledged that this Facebook summit was to serve as warning to Anglos and Americans. Stringer believes the country is changing. He stated, “Before we bring in a lot of new immigrants, we need to figure out how we assimilate the folks that are here. And maybe we have reached the point where we need a little breathing room now; we need a little time to assimilate.”
Stringer further stood his ground on his stance with this passionate rhetoric, “Remember now: In the United States, people are moving all over the place. It’s almost like ‘white flight’ that it constitutes an existential threat to the United States. I think we could be facing national dissolution in a decade or two if we don’t get control of the immigration issue.”
The Republican pointed to the landmark 1954 case of Brown v. Board of the Education as the beginning of the moral decline. “The whole concept of integration is giving minority kids who are typically in worse neighborhoods, not as good a school, the same kind of advantages that white kids have. So you integrate them with the white schools and you get a better, more fair result.”
He further justified this stance, explaining that Europeans can blend in after a few generations while other immigrants cannot. He said, “America has been a melting pot. It’s been a melting pot for people of European descent. If you’re a Swede, a Norwegian, an Irishman and a Frenchman, after the second or third generation, your kids are all alike. They don’t have any accents. They’re indistinguishable.”
While white people may be able to blend in, Stringer warns that Hispanics can’t because Asians haven’t. “Talk to Asians. Even though they’re affluent, they’re an educated, cultured group; they still have a sense of maybe not fully participating in American life.”
Stringer further pointed out that he feels African Americans don’t fit in all the time either. He went on to proclaim that they “still have not been fully assimilated into American culture.”
Needless to say, the GOP was disheartened by these remarks. Stringer is expected to step down.
