Posted on 08/21/2005 3:31:38 PM PDT by 4.1O dana super trac pak
ALBERT LEA, Minn. — Illegal immigration is a dagger aimed at the heart of Americans, according to U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., a leader in the fight against illegal immigration.
Republican Congressmen Gil Gutknecht from Minnesota and Tancredo, chairman of the 70-member House Immigration Reform Caucus, spoke to 100 people at a luncheon Tuesday in Albert Lea.
"Please think about national security," Tancredo said. "People are coming across our borders to do very bad things to us."
The topic was based on immigration, whether legal or illegal.
"It has nothing to do with race, ethnicity or country of origin" but everything to do with the problems that stem from it, Tancredo said.
Those include economic, employment and labor issues as well as crime rates, to name a few, he said.
He said illegal immigration wouldn't be such a big problem if the federal government would enforce the law.
"We have national security problems," he said. Not securing America's borders is the most shameful act on the part of the federal government, Tancredo said.
"This issue of massive immigration is a dagger pointing at our heart," he said.
Tancredo said momentum is growing to combat immigration issues, but a "great wall of opposition" remains.
"I want you to ask your local elected officials — I don't care if it's the county commissioners or the governor — ‘What are you going to do about this issue,' " Tancredo said.
A woman in the audience asked Tancredo if he planned to run for president.
"We need you," she said.
Tancredo said he would if the issue doesn't gain attention at the presidential level.
Gutknecht told the crowd that immigration is an issue that deserves national attention, and he provided many statistics and facts about immigration.
His family emigrated from Germany, Gutknecht said, and he fully supports legal immigration. However, "We cannot encourage individuals to break our laws and enter the country illegally.
"Border protection is important to our national security and economy. For more than two centuries, Americans have fought to protect our sovereignty and secure our borders. Sadly, today our borders are a sieve, allowing illegal immigrants to pour into the country," he added.
Gutknecht offered what he called a snapshot of a typical illegal alien: 32 years old with an average education of seven years, an hourly wage of $5.45 and an annual individual income of $8,982.
Other facts he presented:
-- 42 percent of births to immigrants are to illegal alien mothers. In 2005, births to illegal aliens will account for one in 10 births in the United States.
-- Illegal aliens are eligible for emergency Medicaid services and other medical services.
-- More than 29 percent of federal prisoners are aliens.
-- 55 percent of hired farm workers are unauthorized to work in the U.S.
-- In Minnesota, the cost to educate children of illegal aliens was more than $276 million.
"Facts are stubborn things," Gutknecht said.
Ken Dalager traveled to Albert Lea with at least 10 others from Austin concerned about illegal immigration.
"The people that go to the trouble of getting citizenship, I don't think they're much trouble," Dalager said. "The others slip in undercover and just kind of do things how they want to do them."
Conversations grew heated before the congressmen started speaking, however, as people debated the issue during dinner conversation.
"A simple way to stop illegal immigration is to find the companies that hire them," an Austin woman said.
Everybody is an immigrant, Dalager said. His family migrated from Norway, but years ago policies were different, he said.
"My cousin went to country school and the school board went to her house and said she had better talk English before they sent her to school," he said. "Today they're bending over backwards. You've got to hire two teachers," one that speaks English and one that speaks Spanish.
Paul Westrum of Albert Lea believes in "a common- sense approach to our immigration policy."
He was invited to Tuesday's luncheon by Gutknecht.
"If we don't do something about this immigration issue, we're going to lose our country as we know it," said Westrum, who has researched immigration issues for nearly a decade.
I pay taxes so that the US Government will protect me, my family, and my property from all enemies, foreign and domestic. Most of the other costs of Government were incurred without my consent, and I disagree with a majority of them. Nonetheless, we live in a democratic Republic, and until I can change things, I agree to pay tribute to the crooks in Congress who insist on buying other people's votes with my money. It's cheaper than fighting the bastards.
Now if you don't like that I took the Lord's name in vain, I apologize, first because I believe in Him, and second, because I shouldn't let my anger at the Looting Class get the best of me. That said, you are correct that tribalism predates Liberty. Democratic capitalism is a relatively new concept in human development. It was predated by dictatorship, monarchy, theocracy, and brute force, none of which immediately present themselves as morally superior alternatives. I think the best way we can serve the Lord is by doing His work on Earth. In purely economic terms, that means by being productive, voluntarily generous, and by not coveting thy neighbor's ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor's. If you saw my neighbor's ass, you'd understand. PS - a sense of humor is also indispensible to happiness.
You obey because you must.
He told us to pay taxes and to submit to the government. This includes "involuntary" generosity.
A limit on the number of piemakers is done everyday by business owners but doesn't rise to the level of class warfare unless engaged in by the "populists".
There are agencies that provide day laborers. Because the laborer is employed by the agency, taxes and regulations apply to them, not the end user.
I have used laborers from agencies from time to time and been very satisfied with the cost and the work.
No doubt its satisfying to blame liberals for every social ill, but they are out of power at the federal level where immigration policy is made.
It's mostly not a federal problem. The welfare that illegals are taking advantage of that I was referring to is mostly run by the states.
As I understand it, the federal government requires the states to provide certain services. Several years ago California passed an initiative to end state services to illegal immigrants, but it was overturned in federal court.
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