Posted on 08/15/2005 4:37:18 PM PDT by Spiff
Majority Leader Signals Republican Establishment's Desire for Immigration Reform
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Congressman Tom Tancredo (R-CO) praised Majority Leader Tom Delay's endorsement of key components of his immigration reform and border security bill, the REAL GUEST Act of 2005.
The Houston Chronicle reported today that Delay favored withholding federal funding from so-called sanctuary cities that do not cooperate with federal law enforcement in identifying and prosecuting illegal aliens. Tancredo has proposed amendments to the Commerce, Justice, Science, State appropriations bill and the Department of Homeland Security appropriations bill to withhold federal funding from sanctuary cities in each of the past three sessions of Congress. The REAL GUEST Act requires the Attorney General to certify that localities do not have sanctuary policies before transmitting federal funds.
Delay told a gathering of Republicans in Fort Bend County that, "Before Congress takes any significant legislation, we must secure our nation's borders." The REAL GUEST Act requires measurable border security goals be met before any guest worker program is implemented, including the following: the absconder rate for illegal aliens is less than five percent, 80 percent of visa overstays are located and removed within one year of overstaying, all non-citizens are issued biometric travel documents, and 10,000 new border patrol agents are deployed.
Delay also said that he "would support legislation even stricter than Cornyn's." He said he is against guest workers bringing their families and that children born to illegal aliens should not automatically become U.S. citizens. Tancredo's REAL GUEST Act is the only bill of the big three (McCain-Kennedy, Cornyn-Kyl and Tancredo) that prohibits families coming with guest workers and blocks birthright citizenship.
"I'm encouraged by Tom Delay's remarks. It's good to hear my party's leadership paying attention to the base and getting serious about immigration reform," said Tancredo. "The President and now the majority leader have said that we need to address immigration and border security. Seven years after taking to the House floor night after night, I can say we've come a long way."
...even w/ their heads up their @$$, they could hear the yellin' and screamin'. :P
The problem Buchanan/Tancredo supporters have is to decide what Tom DeLay is up to. Has he really been turned? Can he be trusted to fall in line behind Tancredo and be his able lieutenant, or is he a double agent co-opting Tancredo's issues and supporters for the benefit of President Bush.
No one has been more loyal to the Republican Party and the Bush family than Tom DeLay. No one is more disloyal than Buchanan and Tancredo. Is Tom DeLay just getting even with Tancredo for running to the press and calling for Tom DeLay's resignation? Will he steal all of Tancredo's base and then stab him in the back like Tancredo did him?
I've spoken with Tom DeLay several times over the years and know some people close to him. I trust Tom DeLay, do you?
..This is a good start.
It looks like English? Anyone care to translate? Was your response to me? I asked you "who" the better people are in your opinion to lead on combating illegal immigration. I don't recognize the names you mention as political leaders. Should I?
This is where Delay lost me. As far as I know, sanctions against those who employ illegals have not been seriously used in a long, long time.
Did you just make up the fact that Cong. Tancredo supports a national ID program? If you did not lie about that fact, then provide some proof to support your claim.
I never said any of the proposals were exclusively Cong. Tancredo's proposals. I did ask, though, if you agreed with them.
What candidate do you support for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination?
Who exactly is expecting Majority Leader Delay to "be trusted to fall in line behind Tancredo and be his able lieutenant"? I have absolutely no interest in speculating on the motives of Majority Delay for his support of several proposals also supported by Cong. Tancredo. I'm happy that Majority Leader Delay is supporting the proposals. I look forward to him voting for the proposals. I will not question his motives for supporting good legislation. I do trust Majority Leader Delay to continue supporting several immigration reform proposals that are also supported by Cong. Tancredo. I do trust him to vote for those proposals.
With regard to stabbing someone in the back, here is a portion of an article from The Hill:
Harris camp feels 'a stab in the back'
By Bob Cusack
Frustrated with the White House and a key Republican, supporters of Rep. Katherine Harris' (R-Fla.) 2006 Senate campaign lashed out at the administration yesterday for seeking to convince another prominent GOP official to enter the race.
"It's unimaginable that the White House folks and the National Republican Senatorial Committee would be so disloyal to Katherine Harris, especially after all she has done for the Bush family and the Republican Party," a Florida political operative who supports Harris said. "It's unconscionable and a stab in the back."
If you want to be part of the 0.5% crowd, hop on the Browne/Bayourod open borders lunacy. Brown/Bayourod's fringe agenda gave us two terms of Clinton. Those who deny Bayourod is Browne's puppet are either stupid or Browne puppets themselves.
Bayourod on immigration: "SEALING THE BORDER HAS BEEN PROVEN IMPOSSIBLE"
Browne on immigration: "SEALING THE BORDER HAS BEEN PROVEN IMPOSSIBLE"
Richardson made the first move to use immigration as a political advantage in his moves for higher office, and the pubbies now see it as danger if they don't react .....
"I wonder who is going to monitor corporations to ensure they are in "fact" making a valid attempt to offer these positions to qualified Americans before they recruit workers (who are willing to work for lower wages)from overseas to fill these jobs?"
No one. The fix is already in.
That's true. We really have no experience to judge by, but based upon my discussions over the years with quite a few small employers, fear of being convicted of criminal offenses is a tremendous deterrent that already keeps many employers from hiring illegals.
But the problem right now is that we will only be hurting ourselves if we close down American businesses.
Many companies are agonizing over how to continue operating units here in America instead of outsourcing or relocating. If small suppliers and service providers are forced out of business, their larger customers won't be far behind.
We cannot afford to enforce employer sanctions against hiring undocumented employees until we first ensure that there are sufficient legal employees for them to remain in business.
Agreed
AAAHHH!!!!!
Delay stabbed Dane in the back!!!
More like Dane was caught again with her foot in her mouth.
Loyalty to a family is oh so European.
"Actually Delay knows how to work with his fellow conservatives and not backstab them in the press or try to finance candidates with his PAC to run against ACU standout conservatives such as Chris Cannon, as tancredo did."
Do you have a macro set up where you just hit a hotkey and paste the same crap into posts over and over again?
Nice way to capitalize everyone's name in your post except Congressman Tancredo, by the way, dane. "Uh!"
Tancredo has a big spat with Cannon because Cannon is a MALDEF and National Council of La Raza lackey. And so are you!
Here's an example of a Tancredo/Cannon encounter that demonstrates what a pandering traitorous scumbag Cannon is... and what kind of RINO it is that Dane slobbers over
http://insidedenver.com/drmn/state/article/0,1299,DRMN_21_3753626,00.html
More heat for Tancredo
Rep. Cannon doubts whether Coloradan should be in GOP
By M.E. Sprengelmeyer, Rocky Mountain News
May 5, 2005
WASHINGTON - Rep. Tom Tancredo ought to reconsider his membership in the Republican Party, a Utah congressman said Wednesday after the two GOP lawmakers put an intraparty rift over immigration policy on full public display.
"I think he ought to consider his views and decide whether they're consistent with the Republican Party," Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah, said of the Colorado congressman after the two clashed repeatedly during a forum sponsored by the Latino Coalition, a Hispanic business group.
Cannon, a leading proponent of President Bush's proposed guest- worker program, has had a running feud with Tancredo, an opponent of the plan and outspoken advocate of tougher immigration enforcement. Last year, a political action committee founded by Tancredo targeted Cannon during his primary election challenge.
The two men sat side by side on stools at Wednesday's event inside Washington's J.W. Marriott hotel, and the rhetoric got so emotional that at one point they had a comical tussle over who would get to hold the microphone next.
The debate began with a third panelist, Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., denouncing unnamed people he said were exploiting the immigration issue because of bigotry, hatred and prejudice.
"If not for the undocumented workers in this country, I'd say that this room would not have been as clean and well-organized this morning," Gutierrez said.
Tancredo challenged Gutierrez when he took the microphone.
"We certainly would not want to pander to anyone on this issue, would we?" Tancredo said. "What I just heard was not that, was it?"
Tancredo repeated his long-standing call for the country to close its "porous borders" before it considers a new guest-worker program.
"It is crazy to suggest this nation should not do everything possible to secure the border," Tancredo said, saying a desire for cheap, immigrant labor could leave the borders open to terrorists or narcotics traffickers. Tancredo equates Bush's proposal to "amnesty" for illegal immigrants, saying it would reward people who entered the country illegally.
When it was his turn, Cannon immediately endorsed Gutierrez's earlier statement. He said the vast majority of Americans believe that undocumented immigrants should have "a path to citizenship" as long as they have willing employers, have not committed crimes and already are contributing to society.
Cannon said only a small minority of people "truly believe we should kick out" all illegal immigrants. He cited one of Tancredo's political allies, conservative commentator Pat Buchanan, who got about 1 percent of the vote after he left the Republican Party and ran for president in 2000 as a third-party candidate.
"I don't think there's a place in the Republican Party for racism, for xenophobia, for ideas that are fundamentally un-American," Cannon said.
Tancredo clapped quietly, saying he also sees no place in the debate for racism or xenophobia, which refers to a fear of foreign people or things.
Still, some observers - including a Tancredo staff member - interpreted it as an indirect reference to Tancredo, since he has recently toyed with the idea of following in Buchanan's footsteps and mounting a presidential campaign in 2008.
Asked after the event if he thought Tancredo was racist or xenophobic, Cannon said: "I don't know what motivates him."
In an interview, Tancredo fired back at Cannon, pointing to his primary election challenge by Republican Matt Throckmorton in 2004. The Team America PAC, founded by Tancredo and chaired by Buchanan's sister, Bay Buchanan, backed Throckmorton. Another group, Project U.S.A., placed billboards saying "Congressman Chris Cannon wants amnesty for illegal aliens. Do you?"
"Of the two of us, Mr. Cannon is the only one who has had a primary (challenge since taking office)," Tancredo said. "Evidently, there are a lot of people in his district who believe he is not Republican enough."
Tancredo has recently started traveling to early presidential primary states like New Hampshire, saying he wants to make sure the "serious candidates" put the immigration issue front-and-center in the 2008 race.
He has said it is unlikely he would actually run in - or win - a presidential race, but that he would consider a campaign if other candidates ignore the issue.
But he sees no need to leave the Republican Party.
"I believe the Republican Party is with me on the issue," Tancredo said.
"As long as that's the case, I frankly can't think why I would change. In the Republican Party, more people agree with me than with President Bush and Mr. Cannon (on immigration)."
Tancredo was facing a polite but generally skeptical crowd at The Latino Coalition event. Before he appeared, an opening speaker, while listing the VIPs invited to speak, added, "I'm sorry, but we also have Congressman Tom Tancredo."
That prompted a smattering of boos and hisses.
About 30 minutes after Tancredo, Cannon and Gutierrez left the stage, President Bush appeared for a presentation on Social Security. He got huge applause when he diverged to talk about his guest worker plan, which could go before Congress later this year.
" I guess you are telling good conservatives such as Kyl/Cornyn to STFU also, since for months I have been supporting their plan."
But you don't support their plan, because Kyl says it needs to come with increased enforcement and real penalties... which you don't support.
Dane and Bayourod won't like this ;o)
Let the conniptions begin!
Then it MUST be good!!
"are you aware that Tancredo favors a guest worker program?"
Are you aware that it requires that people apply IN THEIR OWN COUNTRY, not after they've already snuck in?
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