John McCain: Illegal Immigrants 'Intentionally Causing Accidents On The Freeway'

In an appearance on "The O'Reilly Factor" on Tuesday Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) offered a strange defense of a stringent new Arizona immigration bill that could lead to racial profiling.

When asked by host Bill O'Reilly if he was comfortable with the possibility of racial profiling, McCain said he wold be "very sorry" if it happened, but suggested it's justified because of "the people whose homes and property are being violated. It's the drive-by that -- the drivers of cars with illegals in it that are intentionally causing accidents on the freeway."

McCain added: "Look, our border is not secured. Our citizens are not safe." But the Arizona senator did not provide any additional details to back up his assertion about cars carrying illegal immigrants "intentionally causing accidents."

Watch a clip McCain's appearance:

Here's the transcript:

O'REILLY: Now, next week, the governor is going to sign, we believe, a very stringent state law that gives the police in Arizona very, very broad authority to question people. And a lot of people say it's going to be racial profiling. You're going to look for Hispanics, question them, to see if they're here legally or not. And it's just not fair. And you say why?

MCCAIN: I say that the federal responsibilities have not been fulfilled. Therefore, the states are acting -- the state of Arizona is acting and doing what they feel they need to do in light of the fact that the federal government is not fulfilling its fundamental responsibility to secure our borders. Our borders must be secure.

O'REILLY: But what about the racial profiling? You know that's going to happen has to happen.

MCCAIN: I hope -- I would be very sorry that if some of that happens. And I regret it, but I also regret the -- really, it's not just the murder of Robert Krantz. It's the people whose homes and property are being violated. It's the drive-by that -- the drivers of cars with illegals in it that are intentionally causing accidents on the freeway. Look, our border is not secured. Our citizens are not safe.

Comments

[atlantis1star]

01:23 PM on 05/04/2010

The old man has lost it!

He and Kyl are a disaster for my state of Arizona. It is like I am caught it Bizarro land.

Anyone remember Ex-Arizona governor Evan Mecham?

[KarenQP12]

11:14 AM on 05/04/2010

On its merits alone, amnesty is catastrophic to the USA in every conceivable way. The twenty million (or so) amnestied will have the legal right to bring in their immediate familes - which explodes the actual number to over 60,000,000, within a decade. See Robert Rector's analysis on the dire effects of adding that many people, so fast, to the welfare and social security systems - not to mention the overwhelming strain on schools systems, hospitals, health care, crime, etc. And how then are that many people expected to assimilate to the dominant culture and the English language when at that moment in time they will constitute fully one fourth of the American population? If balkanization is the desired outcome, amnesty (or its euphemism, "pathway to citizenship")is the way to go. This is utopianism and wishful-thinking off the scales. A recipe for social unrest or worse. The only sensible course for both US citizens and illegal immigrants is to do everything to encourage the migration to halt. That means finally securing the border, creating the conditions for voluntary self-deportation by penalizing unscrupulous employers and instituting a massive Marshall Plan for Mexico and Central America.

[racetoinfinity]

01:42 AM on 05/04/2010

Has John McCain seen a doctor, or will he just say anything like Glenn Beck?

[Bob Gort]

07:13 AM on 05/02/2010

While it is easy to make fun of John McCain abandoning every reasonable position he's taken in his political life, a more serious thought is that sometime in the last couple of years he may have suffered a TIA that has affected his brain. He may or may not even be aware of it and we certainly wouldn't be told even if it were known to him.

[wmramlal]

01:27 PM on 04/28/2010

John McCain is never at a loss for stupid comments.

[UpstateNYGirl]

12:51 PM on 04/28/2010

'Politically correctness' has had its run, now it's time for some common sense!! Profiling is a useful and necessary tool in law enforcement. If a person of a certain description commits a crime and that info is broadcast to officers to search for them, why would they even want to detain anyone who did not fit that description? The general public is sick to death of ILLEGALs in this country. And by the way...if you are referred to as an Illegal citizen that is incorrect profiling because you are not a citizen - you are an alien to this country and have not earned any of the rights, privileges or services the rest of us law abiding, tax paying , legal citizen have earned. You are not entitled to any of our education, food, rent, shelter, etc, as our legal citizen are entitled to. You can be here, but do it thru the proper authorities and procedures. Why is that not enforced more? Why are we allowing Illegals to dwell in our country and suck our finances dry while we have legal citizen homeless and hungry? That is just insanity!! God Bless Arizona for taking the first step back to law enforcement as it should be.

[frixx]

01:35 AM on 04/27/2010

McCain admitted he hadn't even read the Bill.

It's only sixteen pages.

He's been in Washington too long.

Chief Justice Roberts last week had to ask what the difference between a pager and texting was.

These people have no clue what average people live through everyday, nor do they care.

[edlindaspy]

11:36 AM on 05/04/2010

Hasn't read the bill and he is the Senator of the State? McCain is blaming the federal gov't ,,,,I sure am glad he was not elected president. Someone else mentioned a TIA above. Do they know something the rest of American's don't know. If he had a minnie stroke that should be made public to his constituents. He has lost his credibility and its sad. He speaks and says alot of dumb things lately. "I don't consider myself a Maverick" and that has been one of his campaign slogans for how many years? How many media spots have you seen where he claimed to be a "Maverick" I have seen alot of them!!!! He needs to retire. I believe anyone in the senate should not be allowed to serve after the age of 70. Look how they strolled Byrd in for the vote at 90 years old in his wheel chair. It's ridiculous.

[blewvelvet]

07:45 PM on 04/24/2010

But let's NOT Blame the MULTINATIONAL Corporations for HIRING them in the first place.

Can't the corporations BE "regulated" and punished for their POOR hiring practices?
Why do WE need to be asked "Papers Please"..Shouldn't Corporations have asked for papers first?

If the BORDER STATES keep buying the BS that POOR people with NO money, NO property, NO lobbyists representing them in DC and NO real power, as the continuing CAUSE of YOUR economic problems..than you have more problems than you think.

ECONOMIC BLAME has been done before "Let's blame the Immigrants..Let's blame the Jews for our economic woes, because in all of history..all our crime and economic woes is because of immigrants and jews!!

--------------------------------------------------
"THEY CAME FIRST for the Communists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.

THEN THEY CAME for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.

THEN THEY CAME for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.

THEN THEY CAME for me
and by that time no one was left to speak up."

----"First they came ..." is a famous statement by Pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984) about the inactivity of German intellectuals following the Nazi rise to power and the purging of their chosen targets, group after group. The text expresses, in a condensed form, the understanding of history presented by Niemöller in a January 6, 1946 speech before representatives of the Confessing Church in Frankfurt.

[Gasparilla]

12:45 AM on 04/25/2010

People came here illegally and are here without permission. That makes them subject to removal from this country. That compares to Jews sent to concentration camps?

[Arramos23]

06:00 PM on 04/24/2010

I have an idea, let's keep the status quo and expand on it. We should just have open borders and allow everyone to come in to the U.S. Then we can give all of them welfare, an education, and health care. I'm sure then our country would be on the right track. Oh wait, the U.S. is already bankrupt, this will just speed up the process.

[dhinds]

09:39 PM on 04/24/2010

The USA is a nation of immigrants that unfortunately, haven't yet learned to get along with each other..

[bills mad at]

04:23 PM on 04/24/2010

say johnnie! did i? or did i not,just see a poll that said you are 10 points down from your competitor in the up in comming election? 10 points down to a person who thinks you can pay for a doc's vist with a chicken? like they used too....just saying.

[dourdinlives]

12:25 PM on 04/24/2010

wow! so european immigrants are cracking down on mexicans in the mexicans ancestural homelands...have these people no decency? why are they so driven to make everyone despise them?

[Gasparilla]

12:37 PM on 04/24/2010

The homeland of Mexicans is Mexico. The US did not remove, and I know you can find exceptions, those who had lived here in the southwest. You read it on here all the time. "My family has lived in New Mexico for three hundred years". Great. You are a true and long time American. And Mexico removes those people that cross their southern border. In fact they jail those who do it twice.

[blueballs]

11:38 AM on 04/24/2010

And how do you suppose the *legal* Hispanics -- continually stopped by police and forced to show their "papers" wherever they go -- are going to vote in the future? If YOU were affected by this law, would YOU vote for the Republicans who forced it?

Between this and the "spook" emails by party officials and the "Magical Negro" CDs by the RNC and Steele's "fried chicken and watermelon" comments et. al. it is like the Republicans are BEGGING minorities not to vote for them, isn't it?

Guess they should take a closer look at projections which say that by 2036, Whites will be a minority in America.

[Bill Fold]

01:48 PM on 04/24/2010

Not only Hispanic peoples, but ALL minorities are going to flock to Democrats, and considering that more than 40% of this nation is made up of minorities, it would only take 25% of the rest of the population to defeat almost any candidate... especially in the SW U.S.

All those people, NOT voting for Republicans? Should be an interesting November, in a lot of places.

[frixx]

01:29 AM on 04/27/2010

Consider this:

Yes the illegals and their fellow travelers may vote with 'you' as long as you support their interests. And given the rate of overpopulation, what do you think will happen once their interests no longer coincide with 'yours?'

At a certain point they will decide to vote exclusively their interests, and your voice and your votes won't matter one whit.

At that point, you will implore and plead, prevailing on their sense of fairness and reminding them how they would not have the power but for your help.

To no avail.

They will simply remind you of all the injustices they had to go thru to become the majority.

And you will have no choice but accept you second class status.....or leave.

And you will have no one to blame but yourselves.

[seekingtounderstand]

11:00 AM on 04/24/2010

I live in a large illegal immigrant community. While my teenage is required by law to under go classes on driving and test taking and pay thru the noise for auto insurance, the illegals can barely read signs or drive. I have personally witness many times when they could not park a car and ran thru stop signs.
One of my friends got hit by an illegal in a parking lot, the guy got out of his car and ran. Leaving my friends insurance to pay for everything.

We give so much to help them and what do we get in return, them demanding their rights and to heck with american citizens who pay the price with lost jobs and higher taxes. My county is in debt with bonds due to building schools for illegals.

[Bill Fold]

01:52 PM on 04/24/2010

Which community is that?

By the way... I don't know of anyone over 80 years of age who can read the traffic signs whether they be white, black, Hispanic, Jewish, Catholic... Always someone else to blame for our own, equally troublesome problems in life.

That is sad.

[Lucy1886]

04:40 PM on 04/24/2010

I would suspect that a so-called "illegal" who can barely read a sign or drive would not be able to get a driver's license, and a person who did get a driver's license could, presumably, drive as well as anyone else. Unless you believe that the illegal status would automatically make them worse drivers.......very silly logic.

Many pay into social security and never will get it back, and many do have taxes withheld, after all.........

[Gasparilla]

10:14 AM on 04/24/2010

For those who claim that illegals would never cause accidents deliberately. Here's a link to a story carried in the LA Times.
http://overlawyered.com/2005/11/la-lawyer-held-in-car-crash-fraud-ring/

[patrickmcdougal]

10:30 AM on 04/24/2010

he said that the drivers that are transporting illegals are deliberately causing accidents.
Isn't the goal of transporting illegals to not get caught. Wouldn't causing accidents bring attention to said vehicles? Wouldn't this mean that the Mules would be arrested? Maybe the Mules are trying to stop illegal imigration by disrupting the supply route? So maybe we should be rewarding them.

And the stopping short insurance scam has been and is still being acted out all over the country by Natural Born Citizens. I think we follow your logic, we deport anyone who stops short, citizen or not.

Why do you America?

[Gasparilla]

11:09 AM on 04/24/2010

Well actually, deliberately or not, the drivers transporting illegals DO flee and do cause accidents. And I never said that there aren't insurance scams. But many people have denied that illegals would do this. They have.......And I don't know. Why do you America?

[burkejohne]

12:19 PM on 05/04/2010

I thought maybe he had heard somewhere about how illegals are being recruited by insurance fraud rings to pull the classic "Swoop and squat" tactic, trying to force an accident to get an insurance settlement. I mean, it was in Mother Jones in the 90s, a good mystery book later on (Darwin's Blade), and some episode of Law and Order. If you can't trust L&O as a guide to immigration policy, who can you trust?

[Bill Fold]

01:54 PM on 04/24/2010

That story has NOTHING to do with Illegals in AZ causing traffic accidents on AZ freeways.
Or perhaps I missed something...?

[Gasparilla]

04:52 PM on 04/24/2010

What you "missed" was what I said, because you don't like it. I stated that some people have said that "illegals would never deliberately cause accidents". But they have. Am I right or wrong?

[Shagz2001]

10:13 AM on 04/24/2010

I will never understand the Republican Conservatives. They say they want small unobtrusive government that doesn't intrude on our liberties. But when it comes to real issues that impact people's lives, what is said?

Republican Conservative - Yes, the government can tell me who I can and can't marry (a person's right to marry whomever they love)
Republican Conservative - Yes, the government can dictate to me if I can or can't have that baby (woman's right to choose).
Republican Conservative - Yes, the government can stop me on the street and check my papers whenever it feels like because I look hispanic.
Republican Conservative - Yes, the government can listen in on my phone and e-mail conversations.
Republican Conservative - NO WAY, you can NOT regulate Wall Street, It'll lead to total government control!!!

[seekingtounderstand]

11:03 AM on 04/24/2010

Federal governments first responsibility is to keep the citizens safe, which they have failed to do.

[Bill Fold]

01:55 PM on 04/24/2010

I am perfectly safe.

[Lucy1886]

04:44 PM on 04/24/2010

So is getting us into wars in Iraq, helping create the economic crisis that has intensified unemployment, alcohol abuse, and societal instability so that Exxon-Mobil could make RECORD PROFITS..........so that made us safe from non-existent WMD's that WE ALL KNEW were non existent, no matter how the pro-war folks say: "We didn't know...."

[bills mad at]

04:27 PM on 04/24/2010

10-4!