Anti-Immigrant Republican Uses Racial Slur In Debate Witnessed By Fourth Graders

Author: Vera May 14, 2015 5:17 pm

GOPer Bill Kintner left the Nebraska Senate slack-jawed after he unleashed a racist slur in front of a bunch of fourth graders on Wednesday.
The Senate was debating Legislative Bill 623, a measure that would permit Dreamers (immigrants who came to the United States illegally when they were children) to get drivers licenses. Currently, every state except for Nebraska allows Dreamers to drive. The bill was widely supported, and even conservatives that were against illegal immigration admitted that it was wrong for children to suffer for the actions of their parents.
However, Kintner protested and led a filibuster, confident that he could persuade enough lawmakers to oppose the legislation and stop it from passing. Riling up his colleagues, Kintner insisted Bill 623 was only going to help liberals further dominate the state. He said:

“The progressives have attempted to take our state and make it like California, make it like New York, make it like all the progressive, leftist states: soft on illegal immigration, driver’s license for illegals. Gay rights. Of course Medicaid expansion was a few weeks ago. These are all the things they seek to do to our state to make us like the liberal states, the blue states like California. Of course we didn’t become a great state, we didn’t become who we were being like California. We’re a significantly better state.”

These outlandish claims weren’t what repulsedKintner’s fellow lawmakers most. It was when the anti-immigrant conservative criticized President Barack Obama for creating the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program that shocked the assembly. Kintner suggested that “Operation Wetback,” the name of a 1954 federal crackdown on illegal border crossings, was an example of an effective immigration program.
As Kintner uttered the word “Wetback,” Democrats objected, aware that a class of fourth grade students were listening to the debate from the Senate balcony. According to State Sen. Patty Pansing Brooks (D), who called what Kintner did “disgusting,” the term “wetback” carries just the same offensive weight as the N-word. Kintner continued the debate, promising “to keep the liberals happy” by not using the word again.
As it so happens, Kintner’s attempts to raise opposition to the bill were a waste of energy. The lawmakers returned to the bill today, and approved it – allowing children of illegal immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses in Nebraska.