Posted on 06/05/2006 4:51:21 PM PDT by Spiff
House Republicans vs. Senator Frist’s amnesty plan.
By Rep. Tom Tancredo
The United States Congress stands at a historic crossroads on immigration policy. Two roads diverge. Will the nation get another amnesty program or will it get secure borders to halt illegal entry into our country? House Republicans must choose, because they can’t have both.
The recently passed Senate bill giving amnesty to 12-15 million illegal aliens presents a challenge to House Republicans, but it also presents an opportunity. The House should respond with a strong reaffirmation of the enforcement-first strategy for border control and immigration-law enforcement, an approach strongly favored by a large majority of the American people. If House Republicans abandon that path, they will invite the desertion of their conservative base and the certain loss of the House in the November elections.
Senate Democrats voted 38 to 4 for the amnesty bill, while a majority of Senate Republicans rejected it. The amnesty bill is clearly a Democrat bill that passed with Republican support, thanks to Sen. Frist’s machinations. House Republicans must refuse to drink Bill Frist’s Kool Aid concoction—not even a tiny spoonful labeled “amnesty lite.”
Last December, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 4437, a bill that embodies the enforcement-first strategy for border control and immigration enforcement. The Senate bill takes the exact opposite approach. The two bills are polar opposites not only in text but also in spirit and in purpose. For this reason it is impractical and delusional to try to marry one to the other. Despite the advances of modern science, we do not yet have the capacity to marry a snake to a hawk and produce an eagle.
The crux of the problem is that in the deceptively packaged Senate bill, border control is there as a promise but amnesty is guaranteed, immediate, and irreversible. That is the formula that failed in the 1986 amnesty program, and the House must not buy that pig-in-a-poke again. In such omnibus plans, enforcement can be delayed, diluted, and sabotaged in numerous ways. That is why “enforcement first” is not a slogan—it is an urgent necessity.
The American people expect more from the “People’s House” than joining the Senate’s sellout to the cheap-labor lobby and the American Immigration Lawyers Association. If House Republicans do not answer that call to duty, we will deserve neither our citizens’ respect nor their votes.
There is one sure way to derail the Senate’s amnesty bill: The House Republican leadership should tell the Senate we will not go to conference on the Senate bill. The House should simply challenge the Senate to act on H.R. 4437. Until the Senate sends the House an enforcement-only bill, we have nothing to conference about.
A few Republicans in the House have called for compromise by suggesting clever plans that amount to “amnesty lite.” Down that path lies disaster because “enforcement first” cannot be compromised: Either Congress secures the borders before considering new guest-worker plans or we create a guest-worker program on the mere promise of border security. Genuine enforcement cannot be a mere part of a “comprehensive bill,” it must precede any other reform. House Republicans who break ranks with HR 4437 are choosing a path of certain catastrophe—for the nation in the long run and for our party in November.
If House Republicans take the enforcement first platform to the American people in November, they can win. There is no advantage whatsoever for Republicans in agreeing to write a bad bill in conference on the premise that even a bad bill is better than no bill at all. That is the argument we hear from the White House and it is sheer nonsense. The president does not have to face the voters in November, we do. The president lost all credibility on immigration reform in March 2005 when he called the Minutemen “vigilantes” with Vicente Fox standing at his side. It is time for the president to put his attack dogs on a short leash and let House Republicans chart their own course.
Fate has given the House of Representatives the task of rescuing our national sovereignty and our children’s futures from the Senate’s folly. There are signs we may be up to the challenge, but if we are not, neither history nor the voters will forgive us.
—Rep. Tom Tancredo represents Colorado’s 6th district and is chairman of the 97-member Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus.
LOL. You sound like a teenage girl.
Every piece of legislation that leaves the house will have border enforcement amendments tacked on so Bush and the senate won't be able to kill it or hide from it.
Doesn't matter. If the House is seen as being the obstacle to an immigration bill, Tancredo will spend the next two years getting nothing, for sure, on illegal immigration.
"No bill" translates, for the voting public, into "no action, no reform." If you think that works in the House GOP's favor, you're mistaken.
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Wrong. Only if House Republicans go quietly.
House Republicans need to start shouting and making noise. Defiantly saying "not just no, but heck no".
Without one trace of apology. In fact, with utter defiance.
The House is right. They're 100% right. There's nothing wrong about anything they're doing.
The must not budge.
But they have to shout back. :)
You sound like this is the first time you've ever been confronted with the truth.
And you act like a teenage liberal girl.
Should they stick out their tongues too?
Nope. I went to a Klan rally many years ago. I heard the same thing there.
I'd far prefer that, to the meek acquiescent "dignified" approach we see from too many Republicans.
We're not likely to get hundreds of thousands of conservatives to mass protest in matching outfits on a weekday anytime soon - but a bunch of people respect street fighters, a lot more than they admit. Many will vote for someone, just for standing their ground.
There's a reason Bill Clinton survived impeachment. He fought back.
So should the House. Draw a line in the sand, and don't budge!!
So it's klan-like to believe that America should maintain a euro-white majority?
If the house republicans pass any kind of Amnesty, you are correct.
They will be the minority party and THEY won't get Jack.
Senate Republicans are already supporting a democrat bill. Not all granted, but too many.
Man you are a died in the wool, full blown racist. Is that plain enough for you?
Dude. I think you're going to be surprized by the answer you get from a lot of people.
This poster says "yes".
We're not about race. We should not start being about race.
We're about freedom, and principles.
The principles part, is what matters most.
"They show that he will never be elected Nationally and people like you will pump him up to "Perot" the Republican candidate."
Beats the hell out of the other maggots that are running as Conservative Republicans that are nothing but lying back stabbing dims in republican suits. John Mcain
"Ouch that's gonna leave a mark..."
Please don't misunderstand. I like G.W. and voted for him twice. I just think he's dead wrong on immigration.
As for my Vietnam comment, in 1992 when the slick one was running, no one wanted to talk about "Nam. Despite the cowardly, lying S.O.B. scamming the system and ratting out his country, he got voted in twice. It only came up again in 2000 because Algore had been in country for ten or fifteen minutes, and then again in '04 because we had us a genuine "hero" in Kerry. Most of us who went over had more time sitting in the latrine than Kerry had total.
Today you've got fathers who weren't born yet when the last man got out, with kids who'll be old enough to serve before much more time passes. We've fought a couple more wars and a handful of skirmishes since then. Vietnam just isn't relevant anymore.
Tancredo nails it again.
Thanks for the post.
The Senate already has its mind made up. There's nothing to "confer."
Here is reality. At this point NOTHING will be passed this year. So what happens? Well we stay with the status quo OR we lose congress and then the Democrats pass a bill that will make the present Senate bill look draconian by comparison.
Won't happen because the Dems aren't retaking Congress.
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