Posted on 07/13/2005 12:54:37 AM PDT by rdb3
Some of the most emotional issues in American politics these days are those surrounding immigration. They're so hot, many politicians avoid them because they're afraid to alienate anyone.
One who doesn't is U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo, a Colorado Republican who is one of the nation's strongest advocates for tougher actions to crack down on illegal immigration. He's dismissed by his critics as some Colorado kook, a nativist politician whose attacks on illegals play on anti-Latino racism.
Think what you will of him, he's onto something. The tide of illegal immigration into the U.S. seems only to be growing, the problems surrounding it are getting worse and the country is unable to do anything about it. To make matters worse, there's a danger of terrorists slipping into the country through porous borders.
More and more voters are upset about it all, and this issue could be a huge one in the 2008 presidential election.
Tancredo is now promising to run for president if no other candidates come forward with plans to deal with these questions. He was in eastern Iowa last week appearing before Christian Coalition chapters to talk about the problems and convince conservative activists to start demanding answers from presidential candidates trekking through the state.
In an interview, he said he wants three things:
• "A secure border, including the application of military assets until the time when the border patrol can be brought up to speed on it."
• "Aggressively go after all employers who are illegally hiring people who are undocumented because (employers) are the demand side of the problem."
• "No amnesty of any kind, shape or variety."
Critics of these approaches say they are impractical. Ease in crossing the borders is necessary for commerce, it's impossible to eject the 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States, and some businesses rely on this cheap labor to survive. Many of these illegal immigrants are doing work the native population doesn't care to do and so they make a contribution to our economy.
Tancredo said people who believe all that "are out to lunch...Much of it is just baloney. It's stuff corporations will say because they want to hire cheaper labor."
He noted how Wal-Mart was slapped with fines and executives were threatened with jail after illegals were found working in some stores. "The public relations damage was considerable," Tancredo said. "They have now scrubbed every store in the nation so they can show anybody who comes in that everyone working there is a legal resident - not all citizens, but legal residents of this country.
"Guess what? Not a single store has closed. Amazingly, miraculously, they have been able to hire people and keep the place open," Tancredo said. The same thing could be done in other businesses employing undocumented workers.
He said of the 26 million people working in the service industries, 78 percent are citizens, 10 percent are legal aliens and 12 percent are not in the country legally. "It's not the end of civilization as we know it" to force out illegals and replace them with citizens or legal immigrants.
He said if there are industries that need guest workers, fine, but any guest worker program must assure the workers return to their native country after their labor here is completed.
"What you have to do immediately is secure the border, go after the employers and we will begin to dry up demand. People will leave and go home. They can get in line and come into this country legally either as an immigrant or as a guest worker," Tancredo said.
Candidates like Tancredo are unlikely to ever become president because such single-issue, protest candidacies are almost never able to generate the broad support needed to go the distance. He's the first to admit that.
But they can have a big impact on contests and force their issue to the forefront. (Think of how Ross Perot made the federal deficit an issue in 1992, or how Pat Robertson highlighted social issues in 1988.)
You can keep tabs on Tancredo's efforts at www.TeamAmericaPAC.org.
I am behind these three 100%, even though I'm still cool on Tancredo for betraying Tom DeLay.
Congressman to request
al-Qaida nuke briefing
Tom Tancredo to ask Justice Department
for report on 'American Hiroshima' plan
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=45246
ping
Actually I don't expect that Tancredo will be on the ballot but nonetheless I expect that he will play an important role in the process and he is going to get my support financially and otherwise.
The Republican Party needs to gather a clue and secure the borders. Both President Bush and Tom Delay betrayed Tancredo before he betrayed him. Tancredo is about the only person in the Republican Party that is actually looking out for America and Americans.
Cong. Tancredo is as solidly conservative as any likley candidate for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination.
In May 3, 2005, Cong. Tancredo received one of the "Best & Brightest" awards from the American Conservative Union (ACU). The ACU recognized those members of the U.S. Congress who recorded a perfect score of one hundred percent (100%) in the ACU ratings. Here is a link to the ACU's web page with photos of May 3, 2005, ceremony at which the "Best & Brightest" awards were given: http://conservative.org/pressroom/bestbrightest.asp . The ACU ratings are based on how representatives voted during twenty-five (25) votes. Cong. Tancredo achieved his perfect score with none of the votes having anything to do with immigration.
In March 2005, Cong. Tancredo received the "Taxpayers' Friend Award" from the National Taxypayers Union (NTU). According to the NTU, Cong. Tancredo was given an "A" rating by the NTU for being one of the strongest supporters of responsible tax and spending policies in Congress. Here is a link to the NTU's list of "2004 Taxpayer Friends": http://www.ntu.org/main/page.php?PageID=75 . Cong. Tancredo ranked twelth (12th) highest in the entire House of Representatives in NTU's ratings.
Cong. Tancredo is strongly pro-life. Cong. Tancredo was rated 0% by NARAL in December 2003. Here is a link to a website that provides a list of ten (10) votes by Cong. Tancredo on the subject of abortion: http://www.ontheissues.org/House/Tom_Tancredo.htm . It also provides a list of votes on many other subjects.
he wants three things:
• "A secure border, including the application of military assets until the time when the border patrol can be brought up to speed on it."
• "Aggressively go after all employers who are illegally hiring people who are undocumented because (employers) are the demand side of the problem."
• "No amnesty of any kind, shape or variety."
Works for me.
Bullsqueeze. Tancredo throwing DeLay under the bus was wrong, and Tancredo knows it.
Probably true.
But several months earlier Delay had told Tancredo he was finished in the House and promised to leave him languishing on minor committees. This was because Tancredo supported actual conservatives in the Republican primaries against open borders incumbent RINOs like Chris Cannon R-UT and Jim Kolbe R-Az. I'll agree that Tancredo was probably wrong but Delay picked the fight.
A Tancredo candidacy = a Hillary Presidency. But if you want some of the immigration threads, that is EXACTlY what some want.
I guess a guy like Tancredo gets the truer colors to come out ya know?
The American Conservative Union, rates Tancredo at 100%, like it or not.
Yeah, and...?
I support Tancredo's three points. But my statement about not appreciating how he stabbled DeLay in the back stands. Like it or not.
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