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
We have to do something about this...This problem is destroying our country. Tom is one of the few politicians who even talks about!......
That's it in a nutshell yet it is like the Elephant in the corner - No one will spell out what they are going to do about it.
I agree, it seems no one in this administration is taking border control as a security issue seriously!
bttt
Tancredo is right.
No doubt the usual race pimps will show up soon and accuse him and we who agree with him of being racists.
The racists are the ruling class of Mexico, who are happy to rid themselves of the Mestizo population and prosper their corrupt regime in the process.
Mexico needs regime change.
This is the #1 issue I oppose George Bush on, even more than Campaign Finance.
I have ZERO confidence in the government to resolve this issue. Given the government's well established track record how can we possibly trust them to enforce ANY of the new proposals being bantered about? In addition to that, it seems incredibly naive to believe that all illegals will immediately conform to any new legislation that is passed. The only way to deal with this is to seriously pursue and prosecute those who hire illegals. It's the only way the government cans stand to regain our trust. Remember Reagan's 1986 betrayal - talk about deja vu!
I was taking part in a thread last night that got out of hand and was pulled as these threads sometimes do.
One point I tried to make is that by some estimates a full 5% or more of our population is of the illegal immigrant variety and there are those in this country that are just fine with that.
What would these same people say if they woke to a news report telling them that overnight an invading force of that size entered the country. They would be screaming for our elected leaders to do something to get them out of here.
Rove in a streak of brilliance has triangulated Bush as some messianiac liberal cult leader, cutting off the lefties from their spiritual honey pot, but this is only a short term benefit and it is for Bush and his cronies only, we get the bill when these people head off to Davos to live in their well guarded villas.
Yes, is is a divisive issue and not one for the thin-skinned. Rush Limbaugh is right in his estimation that this stands to fracture the party. It pits those who put respect for the law first against those who put economics above all else. I'll maintain that a sound economy can only exist when built upon a just and trustworthy legal system - Witnessing our our legal and moral integrity eroding at an alarming rate, I'm clear about which which side I'm on.
Bush better do something before most of our middle class and working class jobs are destroyed along with our economy. There is a crisis looming like no other crisis.
That's the rub...Republicans won't go after the businesses and the demoncats don't care because they want their vote......leaving the taxpayer to deal with it all...Bullshit comes to mind.......
Tom, please re-read the Constitution.
Article I, Section 8 Powers of Congress, Cl 15
To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions:
You and the rest of members of Congress don't have to wait for the President to "commit troops to the border."
Step up to the plate and begin to insist that your fellow members of Congress do the job they were sworn to do and call up the Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California militias to repel the invasion.
On Immigration Tom Tancredo is much closer to being Right
than President Bush is.Irecall someone claiming they would
rather be right than President,once. As for the Bush comment about the Mexican nationals taking jobs Americans
wont --I can recall when one could go to any motel and the
staff all spoke the lingua franca(English) now--in Denver
it is difficult to find any hotel where the staff-with the
singular exception of the reception desk,most often speak
Spanish.Borders ,Language, and Culture are a p poor tradeooff for cheap and easy to abuse labor from Mexico--
nobody every explains WHY that old Fox will not provide work for his own people.
It's corruption on both sides of the aisle.
This sums up the problem pretty much. Also how unstable does the USA have to become to keep the corrupt Mexican oligarchs in power.
Southern California is already gone, as anyone who lives here knows. Talk about an invading force; formerly attractive, middle-class neighborhoods are becoming gang-infested, blighted, graffiti-riddled turdholes at an alarming rate...mine included.
How many more states fall before our so-called "leaders", so secure in their ivory towers, finally get it??
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