Gov. Tim Pawlenty is concerned about illegal immigrants residing in his state. Concerned is an understatement, actually. After years of injecting anti-immigrant sentiment into his campaign messages, he’s once again making immigration — a federal issue — a platform for his re-election campaign in traditionally Democratic Minnesota:

His administration issued a report in December estimating that as many as 85,000 illegal immigrants live in Minnesota, at a cost to taxpayers of up to $188 million a year.

Democrats and other critics questioned the Republican governor’s numbers and his motives. But that hasn’t stopped Pawlenty from making immigration a top issue as he seeks re-election.

Pawlenty has been criticized in the past for his sensationalistic statements around immigration:

In Pawlenty’s first campaign four years ago, he promoted a system of tracking immigrants through their driver’s licenses, running a TV ad that said, “Terrorists are here.” He was criticized for that, too, but went on to win.

Soon after his immigration report, Pawlenty rolled out a plan to go after illegals. He proposed to deputize state agents to enforce federal immigration laws, criminalize possession of fake IDs and ban local ordinances that keep police from asking about immigration status.

“You’d have to be really living under a rock not to see this as a real issue,” he said, pointing to photographs of methamphetamine, marijuana, machine guns and cash seized from illegal immigrants.

The governor, of Polish descent, met with Mexican president Vicente Fox in 2004 in an effort to “strengthen trade” between Mexico and Minnesota. At that same meeting, he announced that Minnesota would reject the consular matricula card as a legal form of indentification. Hmm…

Via / The Tuscon Citizen