Posted on 09/22/2006 7:43:18 AM PDT by Dane
Tancredo: 'I Don't Trust the President' on Border Security By Kevin Mooney CNSNews.com Staff Writer September 22, 2006
(CNSNews.com) - An immigration compromise plan will not work, because President Bush cannot be trusted to "certify" America's borders are secure, Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.) said Thursday.
In an effort to reconcile the divergent immigration bills in the House and Senate, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) and Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) put forth a compromise plan this summer that would require the president to "certify" the successful implementation of security measures along the most porous entry points into the U.S. before a guest worker program could be implemented.
"I don't trust the president to say the borders are secure," Tancredo told an audience at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C. He said immigration policy should be formulated with an emphasis on law enforcement as opposed to "political pandering" for votes. Tancredo also cited a "disconnect" between "elite policy makers" and the American people.
This week, the Senate is considering House legislation that would authorize the construction of 700 miles of reinforced fencing along the most porous sections of America's southwestern border.
Additional measures passed by the House Thursday impose criminal penalties on the construction and financing of border tunnels and provide for expedited removal of criminal aliens. The legislation also "reaffirms the authority" of state and local police to enforce federal immigration laws.
Should the Senate fail to act on border enforcement legislation, Tancredo sees grassroots efforts and citizen activism on the local level as a viable alternative. He would like to see citizen support for strict local laws against illegal immigration and support for pro-enforcement officials at the local level.
Tancredo pointed to a local ordinance in Hazelton, Pa., as an example of the kind of legislation local officials could enact. The ordinance imposes fines and penalties on landlords who rent to illegal aliens and on businesses who hire them.
Similar measures have also passed in other parts of Pennsylvania and in Riverside, N.J.
Tancredo took issue with some conservative strategists - such as Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform - who feel that a push for stringent immigration policies could hurt the Republican Party politically.
"I don't buy it," Tancredo said. "By saying we should be a nation of laws, we will gain votes."
As evidence, Tancredo pointed to Proposition 200 in Arizona, which requires government employees to verify the immigration status of people applying for benefits. Tancredo noted that law was enacted with support from 47 percent of the state's Hispanics.
That is why I am for a guest wroker program. BTW, we would n't have a labor shortage if some 40 million babies had been aborted since 1973.
I guess we agree about SOMETHING!
I would have made the same argument until I spent some time on the inside of politics and saw it happening up close.
It is 100x as cynical as I ever would have suspected. The biz folks will go wherever the goodies are being passed out. So if the dems are passing out guest worker programs, the biz folks who hire a lot of illegals will line up. It's already happened in many instances. I know some major companies who are no longer contributing to R's because the D's are better on guest-worker programs. I know this because they are no longer contributing to R's and have told us why.
And, on the other side of the coin, most politicians will go where the campaign contributions are being passed out. That was Tancredo's and (for Coloradans, Bob Schaffer's) principal sin. If you want to be an R and have party influence and get party money, you can talk as conservative as you like. But you have to play ball with the money guys when push comes to shove. In today's America, the money wants open borders.
Tom and Bob Schaffer don't play ball. What is remarkable is how much influence Tom has amassed, notwithstanding. He has been able to do so by cutting the purse strings with the R's and by developing a national, small-donor list that keeps him alive. And that's why the party establishment hates him so. He doesn't need their money and they can't control him.
As for onerous regulations--probably more than half of the regulations on the books are passed at the request of businesses and are designed to stifle competition from other, usually smaller, businesses.
As they say, politics is like making sausage. It's not really something you want to see happening up close, unless you have a strong stomach.
These things that are currently being banted about in the media are merely window dressing for their loss of popularity in the polls, especially this close to an election - nope, I used to live in MO so I will only believe what they have done in the past and that is absolutely NOTHING!!!
LOL!
At last, something we agree on. :)
But tancredo hardly ever talks about that.
There, you are wrong. I see Tom speak a lot. He is ardently pro-life and talks about it freely. He just doesn't get quoted on it in the national press because that's not the slot the press gives him. He's in the immigration slot in the national press.
Oh please, now its tancredo the martyr because he stood up to mean old, business.
JMO, you are a union representative masquerading as a conservative.
"Who trusts Bush on border security?"
Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter.
I don't trust him either.
"Praying towards Mecca five times a day in Matamoros..."
Ironically Matamoros means "Moor Killer" in Spanish.
We have to. He is the only president we have.
a big wall will
What state do you live in?
He's against the WORD amnesty while continuously trying to push it. He does get credit for finally acknowledging that we're waging a war against Islamic Extremism after years of fighting an adverb.
Howlin to Tumblindice: Are you new to these threads? Most of the posters on these threads despise George W. Bush. And anybody with eyes can see Tancredo has NO OTHER ISSUE.
There's why you have such a hard time...assuming those who aren't into your idolitry thing must inversely hate the object of your adoration. You and the others sharing this trait make Free Republic appear to be a bought organ of the RNC while trying to shout down anyone who doesn't worship at your altar of "W". THAT'S what makes the site look foolish to casual observers - and makes a lot of thinking people dismiss FR when they see posters presenting conservative ideas bullied by those of you who consider compromise necessary and power more important than what's right.
Howlin to Tumblindice: But on this issue, he walks behind Vincente Fox. It's statements like that that are why you all are summarily dismissed.
Didn't know you were Jim under another moniker. The arrogant assumption of power is either ridiculous or you're one of the mods whose identities are so secret. But he assured me that moderators don't indulge in "flaming", so I have to assume you're just a legend in your own mind.
Howlin to Tumblindice: ROFLMAO. You can't even find an offshore article to back up your OWN statement: "I believe a guest worker program will help us rid the society and the border of these coyotes, who smuggle people in the back of 18-wheelers," Bush said. See what I mean; you have to LIE to try to make your point.
I have to note that you were the one to use a NY Times poll as supposed proof that the immigration issue is insignificant. We have several guest worker programs yet they just don't seem to provide the amount of people willing to work for wages that Americans can't live on to satisfy the demand. Damn that living wage!
Howlin to Invisible Gorilla: You always manage to leave out the parts that make your argument look ridiculous; like the part where they have to LEAVE the country. And yes, we NEED a guest workers program.
I don't need a guest worker program. No one I know in various businesses need a guest worker program. If you know business people who can't conduct business without sub-wage laborers they are plainly working within a paradigm that should be allowed to fail. Illegals breed corruption and those who claim they can't get by without them are examples of that.
Howlin: Why don't you busy your peabrain by finding ONE post where I have indicated I am for open borders. Find it and post it right here, or forever been known as a liar.
Your consistent attacks on those calling for securing the borders speak for themselves.
Miss Marple; just like the Guantanamo detainees, Rights Are For Citizens. Screw up somewhere else on this planet and see how far your case gets without plenty of payola.
Dane wrote: The tancredo faction is a small one and also hates business, but not because of business will makea profit, but because of the people they hire to create wealth for the economy.
Whistling past the coming graveyard of disenfranchisement while citing legalized abortion as a reason he's unable to get adequate labor. How many more ways can he say he depends on illegals for profit before most posters get the picture?
Modelbreaker wrote: What is remarkable is how much influence Tom has amassed, notwithstanding. He has been able to do so by cutting the purse strings with the R's and by developing a national, small-donor list that keeps him alive. And that's why the party establishment hates him so. He doesn't need their money and they can't control him. As for onerous regulations--probably more than half of the regulations on the books are passed at the request of businesses and are designed to stifle competition from other, usually smaller, businesses.
That's correct. I've met and talked with many politicians but only Tom struck me as a warrior on a mission from God.
And Dane - noting how you try to saturate the last posts on a thread as if your views are rational/foundational/whatever's going on in your head...we're onto it because your act is officially tired. Try injecting news items or WSJ article excerpts - anything but this lame old stuff. Tighten up - this sort of performance is not what the lobby is paying you for.
Bush has never called for a program that required illegals turned guest workers to leave the country...ever. Bush supports a path to citizenship for current illegals.
And you know this how, that if it wasn't for the neo-Joan of Arc, tom tancredo, that the House would have voted somethinbg similar than the Senate.
JMO, tom tancredo is a walking ego in a suit, and if he wasn't in Congress, the House still would have not passed the Senate's version.
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