Posted on 02/04/2005 4:26:13 AM PST by billorites
U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado wants to hold Presidential candidates' feet to the fire to help stop illegal immigration and secure the country's borders.
"This is an issue I want all the Presidential candidates to debate. I want the candidates when they come here to answer the questions, 'What are you going to do about the borders? Will you commit troops to the border?' " Tancredo, a Republican, said in an interview with The Union Leader.
Illegal immigration and securing the country's borders affect every aspect of American life, including jobs, health care, education and national security, he said.
"The issue is where do you get cheaper workers. Cheap is only that to employers, not to the American taxpayers," he said.
Tancredo came to New Hampshire on a two-day trip to raise the issue of immigration reform together with Angela "Bay" Buchanan, chairman of Team America, a political action committee focusing on immigration reform. Tancredo is the founding chairman of the organization.
Their first stop was to present an American Patriot Award to New Ipswich Police Chief Garrett Chamberlain; he detained nine Ecuadorian immigrants last summer, but federal officials told him to release them.
Tancredo will also speak on several radio programs, including the "Howie Carr Show" on WRKO radio today at 5 p.m. He will meet with Republican state representatives and conservative activists, and he will speak at Nashua Christian High School.
Yesterday, Tancredo was critical of the Bush administration's position to allow illegal immigrants already in the United States to remain here under a "guest worker" program. "He says he is against amnesty, and then in the next sentence he defines amnesty. That's Clintonesque, and it really bugs me," he said.
Tancredo said Bush is proposing amnesty and will encourage billions more people to cross the border illegally and tell everyone who entered legally they are suckers.
Congress last year authorized doubling the number of border control offices, but former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge refused to spend the money, he said. "If something (like the terrorist attacks of 9/11) happens, you tell me someone shouldn't be liable with the attitude of this administration," Tancredo said.
He said he will introduce a bill this session to double the number of border patrol officers and train them to use technology for better surveillance of the borders. He estimated it would cost about $8 million to double the border patrol and several billion dollars for the technology.
Until the number of patrol officers is doubled, Tancredo said, he would have the military help watch the borders. "We could seal the borders, but we choose not to" because of political pressure, he said.
He said he is finding more and more converts to his way of thinking.
"If this were not an issue for John Q. Public, it would not be an issue in Congress," he said.
Tancredo, in his fourth term in the U.S. House, serves on the House International Relations and Resources Committee and on the Budget Committee. He is chairman of the House Immigration Reform Caucus.
Tancredo was a school teacher before serving in the Colorado Legislature and then in the U.S. Department of Education during the administrations of Ronald Reagan and the senior George Bush. He was also head of the Independence Institute, a libertarian-leaning think tank in Golden, Colo
When the ivory towers begin to fall, unfortunately.
Their first stop was to present an American Patriot Award to New Ipswich Police Chief Garrett Chamberlain; he detained nine Ecuadorian immigrants last summer, but federal officials told him to release them.
These "Federal Officials" should be immediately charged with dereliction of duty and thrown out of whatever job it is that they do.
WE pay their GD Salaries and if the SOBs will not do their jobs then it is time for them to go on unemployment.
Congress has voted to authorize the military be put on the borders several times in the last few years. The problem is the Senate, they have other ideas about protecting the US.
We're all going to die!!
What I don't understand is the extra guards have already been approved by Congress, why don't they just add the funding that was left out in the budget themselves? As far as I know they're free to do that so what's the need for a new bill?
Once Again, Tancredo is right in what he is doing. We need to hold not just the President's feet to the fire, We need to hold all of his successors as well.
Hi nanak. At least you aren't spamming every thread with tancredo's picture.
ping
Actually trying to get these people above ground is not foolish, the honest ones who just want to work will, opening up more resources to go after the terrorists.
Save your 'political capitol' for something ALL Americans really need, Mr President - SSI reform. Looks like you're gonna need all of it just for that one issue.
>"C'mon Tancredo, put your legislation where your mouth is!"<
Why are you shouting? He already has- H.R. 418.
Welcome & thanks.
Many thanks for your service to our country. God bless you.
Because I am sick of watching him beat a dead horse. He's already admitted that what Bush outlined in his speech was DOA. And FYI, if you will check Thomas Legislation H.R. 418 was submitted by Sensenbrenner, Tancredo is only a co-sponsor. And from what I have scanned in the text, it is not nearly enough.
http://www.city-journal.org/html/14_1_the_illegal_alien.html
In Los Angeles, 95 percent of all outstanding warrants for homicide (which total 1,200 to 1,500) target illegal aliens. Up to two-thirds of all fugitive felony warrants (17,000) are for illegal aliens.
• A confidential California Department of Justice study reported in 1995 that 60 percent of the 20,000-strong 18th Street Gang in southern California are illegal aliens.
Yes, he does, but he was told publicly, by none other than Tancredo, amongst others, that his broad outline was DOA. If Tancredo thinks he can do a much better job, then where is his alternative plan? There are two immigration reform bills in subcommittees right now, neither was submitted by Tancredo, he is only a co-sponsor, and they are nothing like the comprehensive plan he submitted in the last session, that also got bogged down in the subcommittees and apparently died. I applauded him then, I think we all could have lived with that one. Right now I am just frustrated that he continues to beat Bush's dead horse rather than resuscitating that plan.
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