Posted on 01/21/2006 5:02:47 PM PST by SandRat
| Sierra Vista resident Jim Behnke, left, talks Friday with U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colorado, in Benson. (Bill Hess-Herald/Review) |
Herald/Review
BENSON — U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo says that when it comes to understanding Americans’ anger about the border, the House of Representatives has got it and the Senate doesn’t.
And, he said, the American people want the border with Mexico secured and the president enforcing U.S. immigration law.
During a morning stop in Benson, the Colorado Republican pointed to the recently passes bill in the House that requires building 700 more miles of wall along the southern boundary, along with hiring additional Border Patrol agents and adding more technology to secure the border is the right thing.
But he fears the Senate will not follow suit and fall under the sway of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and big businesses, meaning the House members would have failed in their attempt to protect the country.
He spoke with about 50 people Friday morning as he made his way through parts of Southern Arizona. The excursion began in Phoenix on Thursday and included a stop in Tucson before heading to Benson and then on to Willcox.
Tancredo said Americans and Mexicans are to blame for the problem. “America is hooked on cheap labor, and Mexico is hooked on the remittances (from its citizens in the U.S.),” he said.
Of the $52 billion last year sent out of the United States by foreign workers, $20 billion went to Mexico, he added.
The Mexican government and some other Central American officials are now threatening to take the United States to the United Nations, claiming the United States is violating the human rights of their citizens, the congressman said.
“You talk about chutzpah (a Yiddish word for impudence), they have the gall to tell us we can’t secure our own borders,” Tancredo said.
Governments like Mexico need to address their own internal problems causing their citizens to flee, seeking jobs in the U.S., he said.
“They’ve got to create a better economy for their unemployed,” said Tancredo, who has made border issues his bully pulpit while in Congress.
Bay Buchanan, whose brother Pat has been a Republican presidential candidate, joined Tancredo on the tour.
A founder of Team America Political Action Committee, she said Republican senators have to be told not to cave into big business and corporation cheerleaders, such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. She said the message the senators must hear is “secured the border, enforcement only.”
President George W. Bush praised the House of Representatives in passing the enforcement bill. But, Buchanan said, Bush hasn’t said he wants to secure the border without a guest-worker program. She said that view is wrong and not want people want.
“Do not be fooled,” she said. “They are not going to say guest worker, they are going to say enforcement.”
The guest worker phrase will not be used, but they will claim enforcement will be difficult without some kind of policy to help Mexico and other countries, whose citizens are illegally entering the United States, Buchanan claims.
“Guest worker is nothing more than amnesty,” she said.
Buchanan and Tancredo wore badges that stated: “Secure America Now, No Amnesty.”
They said there must be what can be described as a full-court press, with people urging their senators not to water down the House bill.
However, Buchanan said, “Just skip (Sen. John) McCain.”
Tancredo said U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., will be more amenable to calls for re-election this year.
While he praised McCain for doing many good things, Tancredo said the Arizona U.S. senator and fellow Republican is out of the mainstream when it comes to border issues.
In a handout provided by Team America PAC, both Arizona senators were rated on border issues. Kyl received a B average, while McCain’s average was D minus.
Tancredo said there is hope for some of southern Arizona this year as residents of Congressional District 8 will have a chance to elect a more conservative Republican.
As he walked to the large RV that he, Buchanan and others are using on the road trip, Tancredo said he has endorsed Randy Graf for the seat, currently held by Republican U.S. Rep. Jim Kolbe. In 2004, Graf lost the GOP primary to Kolbe, although he carried Cochise County.
Kolbe, an 11-term congressman, announced he will not be seeking re-election, opening the door for a new representative for a district that includes Cochise County.
Tancredo said he wants Graf elected because he will be an important ally in Congress in securing the border.
With a smile, Tancredo would not make an in-depth comment about Kolbe’s decision to retire.
“He made a decision with which I can’t disagree,” he said.
As for McCain, Tancredo said he and the senator are “poles apart when it comes to immigration.”
Roger Barnett, a Sierra Vista businessman and Douglas-area rancher, listened to Tancredo and Buchanan. He said Americans are seeing their jobs eliminated because illegal immigrants will work for less.
“Businesses are paying slave wages,” he said.
If the United States does not close down the border and enforce existing immigration laws, more Americans will lose pay and benefits because illegal immigrants will take their jobs, Barnett said. “Big business are the whores,” he added.
Buchanan called on people to start a campaign to force the Senate, while simultaneously strengthening House members to stay the course, by refusing to kowtow to businesses.
“We need to drown out the voice of corporate America,” she said.
Looking at the people crowding into a small room at the Horseshoe Cafe in Benson, Tancredo said, “I have a feeling we (he and Buchanan) are preaching to the choir.”
Al Garza is in the choir.
The executive director of the national Minuteman Civil Defense Corps presented the congressman with a membership card from the organization.
“Now, I’m a card-carrying Minuteman,” Tancredo said to laugher.
In a telephone interview, Tancredo critic Douglas Mayor Ray Borane said the congressman may say he understands border issues, but he doesn’t.
“He’s completely out of touch,” Borane said.
Tancredo has found a small, dedicated vocal following because he has been outspoken on more enforcement on the border, the mayor said. “It’s not that simple,” he said.
Being a border mayor, Borane said he has worked immigration issues directly because he understands the two cultures involved in the problem.
In the past, the mayor has called for a guest-worker program, but with assurances there will be no amnesty.
People such as Tancredo come and make a visit to the border and fly back to Washington, D.C., without understanding all the nuances involved with the problem, the mayor said.
“I wish he would stop all the posturing,” Borane said. “He thinks he has all the solutions, but he has no experience.”
During his stop in Benson, the congressman said that three years ago, he was about the only member of Congress talking about the need to secure the border through enforcement.
The issue is now throughout the nation, and other members of Congress are seeing the need to do something now, he said.
“The president and my party need to have public pressure,” Tancredo said.
So far, increased pressure is helping some see the need to act. “They are seeing the light because they are feeling the heat,” Tancredo said.
SENIOR REPORTER Bill Hess can be reached at 515-4615 or by e-mail at bill.hess@svherald.com.
Border Story
Looks like I'll have to fire off a letter the "The Lieb" here in Ct.
The Senate doesn't understand the importance of allowing drilling in Alaska either. They know better than both Alaskan Senators do about their own state.
"Bay's here, everybody get your checkbook out."
I'm still stunned at the arrogance of the Mexican government that insists there is some "right" of their citizens to invade the United States, to do so by way of ignoring the legal requirements to enter the country.
They seem to know no reason. I wonder how many other countries in the world Mexico assumes is "denying rights to it's people" for these reasons, or, is it just the U.S. they target? If so, why?
That last question was rhetorical...
but they are not invading the Estados Unidos, or criminales, they are just returning to Aztlan. Didn't you see the Group at the Home-Depot protest for the Day Worker site in Berkley???
The U.S. Senate is the largest collection of pompous, bloviating windbags ever assembled in this part of the Milky Way - and that includes Republicrats and Demogogues!
"Tancredo's in bed with Bay Buchanan SQUAWK! < /Dane >
Not that I've been to Berkeley, nor have plans to, seriously here, the illegal alien population and Mexico, specifically, does seem to be interwoven with the U.S. construction industry moreso than just about any other...I even heard/read Vicente Fox referring to his "people's" "talents" with "construction" on several occasions, and, the Home Depots, Lowe's especially are too intermingled with glorifying "cheap labor" for my comfort, including bilingual stores and signage for the added insult to the rest of the U.S. (both stores should be chastised for those practices, in my opinion -- if they want to establish Spanish speaking stores and personality, then let them go to Spanish speaking countries to do that).
That's funny!
I doubt it was as much as Bush, Cheney and the RNC bagged from the corporations that want our borders left open and the illegal alien advocacy groups.
What's your point?
I'm sure you will recall that during the congressional elections of 2004, Team America PAC contributed heavily to the campaigns of candidates running against imcumbant republicans. Many considered this to be a violation of Reagan's 11th Commandment and Tanc was criticized by many Republicans for this and they accused him of being a back-stabber. Delay and other republican house leaders went so far as to point out that Tanc has had no advancement in the House because he is anti-republican. If you look at his committee assigments you see that, in spite of his tenure, he doesn't hold even a sub-committee chair and he gets only the lowliest of the low committee assignments.
In response to this, Bay pointed out that Tanc doesn't control TA PAC and he wasn't responsible for opposing these republican imcumbants, that she and Pat control it. I always thought that this was odd since Tanc formed TA PAC, his name is used on the literature, and he raises money for it.
When ever I see examples, such as is describe in this article, of Tanc raising money for Pat and Bay I don't undrstand it. Its like he is paying off Pat and Bay for something they have done for him or will do for him.
So what do you care?
Securing the border with Mexico is only halfway done. It needs to be done with Canada, too.
Tancredo believes, as many of us do, that illegal immigration is one of the most important issues confronting our Nation, so do Pat, Bay and Team America PAC.
Supporting candidates that are pro-open borders, pro-illegal immigration, anti-U.S. sovereignty, one-worlders just because they claim to be Republicans is suicide.
"...they accused him of being a back-stabber."
So, what.
A so-called Republican candidate that supports a plan allowing the millions of illegal aliens in our country to stay is 'back-stabbing' the citizens of the United States.
The majority of the citizens of the United States want our existing laws against illegal immigration enforced and our borders secured.
Tancredo, Pat, Bay and Team America PAC are members of that majority.
The open-borders, Republican and Democrat candidates that Tancredo, Pat, Bay and Team America PAC oppose are not.
Why is that so hard for you to understand?
Go back and read the Republican Party Platform Planks when Reagan was Governor of California and President of the United States and compare them to the Bush/Rove/RNC Platform Planks of today.
Then ask yourself, 'Who stabbed who in the back?'
Everybody is anti illegal, including Ted Kennedy and Hillary Clinton. There are a very small number of wild-eyed libertarians and utopian marxist who support open borders and the free flow of labor.
The only actual difference between all that oppose illegals is what the solution to the problem is.
Your method, like many here, is to try to call those who disagree with you and Tancredo the myth OBL, un-republican, and un-americam. An out right lie.
I can read Tancredo's reform bill and he says that the illegals can't be deported. So for all you zealots who are advocating the round-up and deportation of the illegals, you need to find another political leader.
I know that Tanc has a lot of loyal, hardcore supporters and I hate to see them donate to TA PAC thinking they are supporting him when the money actually goes to Pat B.
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