Walker Not Interested In Arizona-Style Immigration Reform

Gov. Scott Walker says he’ll try to stop an Arizona-style immigration law from passing the Wisconsin legislature. It’s an idea Wisconsin lawmakers talked about last year.

Arizona’s immigration law requires police to ask people about their immigration status if officers suspect they’re in the country illegally. As a candidate for governor during a Republican primary campaign in 2010, Walker said he would sign such a law.

But the governor reversed his position when asked about it Wednesday by reporters, “I think that would be a huge distraction for us in the state. And so it’s one where certainly I hope areas I’ve mentioned are priorities–I don’t think that falls into one of those priorities. So I would certainly hope that the legislature didn’t spend a lot of time focusing on that.”

Walker’s comments are similar to those of other top Republicans in the wake of the 2012 election, where Hispanic voters went overwhelmingly to President Obama.

The governor still did not promise to veto such a law if it reached his desk.But he came close, “I’d push to make sure it didn’t come up. I’m not going to make any veto promises on any legislation right now as much as to say my priorities are the five I’ve laid out and I’m going to spend my time and effort trying to push the legislature to act on things that fit within those five priorities.”

The five priorities Walker mentioned, broadly, cover economic and infrastructure development as well as changes to government and education. Republicans flirted with the idea of pushing an Arizona-style immigration law last session in Wisconsin, but it never went anywhere.