Sen. John McCain (R.-Ariz.) told a March 31 rally in the Bronx organized by a lobbying group funded by the Irish government that demonstrations around the country calling for the legalization of illegal aliens will help pass his guest-worker/amnesty plan. On Irish radio the same day, McCain pointed to the March 25 demonstration in Los Angeles as an example.
"If such demonstrations continue, I think we will have a bill for the President to sign soon," McCain said, according to the New York Daily News. In an interview with Ireland's RTE 1 Radio, McCain said: "We have seen massive demonstrations the size that we've never seen in this country. We've never seen a demonstration of 500,000 or 600,000 people. The sheriff of Los Angeles told me it was closer to three-quarters of a million. Twenty thousand people in my home city of Phoenix, Ariz. So, we are seeing massive demonstrations that they don't want us to treat people as if they are some kind of criminals. They want us to let them earn citizenship. We want to protect our borders and we want to have a viable guest-worker program." When asked how long it will take to win his battle to legalize illegals, McCain said: "You know I don't know, because a short time ago, two weeks ago, I would have told you we probably can't get the McCain-Kennedy bill through the Judiciary Committee intact. We got it through intact. I'd like to say it's because of the eloquence of me and Ted Kennedy, but it's because of the outpouring of emotion on the part of many, many people - Irish, Hispanics, Poles, people from all over the world who have come to our country to have a better life."
