Thread: Tancredo: 'We are going to secure our borders'

http://www.goupstate.com/apps/pbcs.dll/ ... 051/NEWS01

Article published Sep 8, 2006

'We are going to secure our borders'
ROBERT W. DALTON, Staff Writer

Call it the hard line according to Tom Tancredo.

The Colorado congressman tossed out tough talk on illegal immigration that has become his trademark during a stop in Spartanburg Thursday night.

"We are going to take on this issue of illegal immigration, and we are going to secure our borders, and we're going to do it come hell or high water," Tancredo said to a crowd of about 150 Thursday night at the Spartanburg County Republican Party headquarters.

Tancredo, a potential 2008 Republican presidential candidate, made his remarks during a pep rally for the county GOP. Gov. Mark Sanford, who is seeking a second term in the Nov. 7 election, also briefly rallied the troops.

Tancredo said illegal immigration is a threat that must be confronted. He implored those in attendance to question candidates on how they would deal with the issue.

"It's got nothing to do with race, it's got nothing to do with ethnicity and it's got nothing to do with country of origin," Tancredo said. "We are splitting apart at the seams, and it's becoming harder and harder for us to understand and think about who we are and what does it mean to be an American anymore."

Tancredo called out President Bush, saying that Bush is wrong on the issue. He opposes any type of amnesty program and said Bush has not done enough to secure the borders.

He also took a swipe at Sen. Lindsey Graham, saying that South Carolina's senior senator "has become more of a problem to immigration reform than a part of the solution."

Spartanburg County Republican Party Chairman Rick Beltram said he expected Tancredo's comments to be even more reactionary. He said he agrees with Tancredo's stance -- to a point.

"I do believe that we've got to secure our

borders, but I don't see where it's practical to ship back 11 million or 15 million people, or whatever the number is," Beltram said. "For hard-working people who are paying taxes, there should be some sort of registration and a period of probation that leads to citizenship."

Mike Griffin, a Greer resident who moved to South Carolina from California more than 20 years ago, said he sides with Tancredo. Illegal immigrants, he said, should be rounded up and deported.

"It's just a matter of if they want to do so," Griffin said. "It could have been done in California years ago."

Sanford said what to do with illegal immigrants is the big debate at the federal level. He said Tancredo is one of the driving forces behind the debate.

"Because he and some others are making noise, they are forcing action to be taken on securing our borders," Sanford said.

Illegal immigration isn't the only issue on which Tancredo, 60, has taken a hard-line approach. He also voted against sending aid to Hurricane Katrina survivors and against extending the Voting Rights Act.

Tancredo's Spartanburg visit kicked off a five-day tour of South Carolina. The four-term representative faces a challenge from Democrat Bill Winter on Nov. 7. He would not talk about his presidential aspirations.

"I don't want to talk about some other race I might be involved in while I'm involved in this one," he said.

Robert W. Dalton can be reached at 562-7274 or bob.dalton@shj.com.

He also voted against sending aid to Hurricane Katrina survivors and against extending the Voting Rights Act.

Well, he had my vote until I read the above. How could he be against Black Americans, we are citizens, voters and taxpayers.

Originally Posted by Preachingtothechoir

He also voted against sending aid to Hurricane Katrina survivors and against extending the Voting Rights Act.

Well, he had my vote until I read the above. How could he be against Black Americans, we are citizens, voters and taxpayers.

Please don't be too quick to judge until we know what his reason was. And the reporter didn't have to throw that tidbit in because it has nothing to do with the subject matter. Perhaps he wanted to turn some against Tancredo.

I'd vote for him in a second because he is passionate about illegal immigration and has been for years. Finished reading his book "In Mortal Danger" which should be required reading for all citizens.

Tancredo said:

"We are going to take on this issue of illegal immigration, and we are going to secure our borders, and we're going to do it come hell or high water,"

Go Tom!!!

http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/fo ... read=78248

REP TANCREDO: BLOCK KATRINA AID TO LOUISIANA POLITICIAN *PIC*

Posted By: Ghost
Date: Wednesday, 7 September 2005, 4:14 p.m.

Congressman Tancredo: Block Katrina Aid to Louisiana Politicians
Sept. 7, 2005 | Steve Sabludowsky

WASHINGTON, DC. - Congressman Tom Tancredo (R-CO) wrote a letter to Speaker Hastert, urging him to direct federal hurricane relief aid through channels other than Louisiana public officials. Citing incompetence and a history of corruption, Tancredo said a bipartisan select committee of the House should administer the aid and provide accountability for the $52 billion requested. The letter is reprinted below:

Dear Mr. Speaker,

Given the abysmal failure of state and local officials in Louisiana to plan adequately for or respond to the effects of Hurricane Katrina on the city of New Orleans, and given the long history of public corruption in Louisiana, I hope the House will refrain from directly appropriating any funds from the public treasury to either the state of Louisiana or the city of New Orleans. Instead, reconstruction and relief funds dedicated to the people of New Orleans should be administered by a private organization or a select committee similar to the historic Truman Commission.

Public corruption is a well known problem in Louisiana. The head of the FBI in New Orleans just this past year described the state´s public corruption as "epidemic, endemic, and entrenched. No branch of government is exempt." Over the last thirty years, a long list of Louisiana politicians have been convicted of crimes; the list includes a governor, an attorney general, an elections commissioner, an agriculture commissioner, three successive insurance commissioners, a congressman, a federal judge, a State Senate president, six other state legislators, and a host of appointed officials, local sheriffs, city councilmen, and parish police jurors. Given the documented public corruption in the state, I am not confident that Louisiana officials can be trusted to administer federal relief aid.

Clearly the federal response from FEMA in the aftermath of the hurricane was hampered by bureaucratic ineptitude. Making matters worse, the Mayor of New Orleans and the Governor of Louisiana have demonstrated mind-boggling incompetence in their lack of planning for and response to this disaster. According to one recent media report, "A year ago, as Hurricane Ivan approached, New Orleans ordered an evacuation but did not use city or school buses to help people evacuate. As a result many of the poorest citizens were unable to evacuate. Fortunately, the hurricane changed course and did not hit New Orleans, but both Gov. Blanco and Mayor Nagin acknowledged the need for a better evacuation plan...[but] did not take corrective actions. In 1998, during a threat by Hurricane George, 14,000 people were sent to the Superdome and theft and vandalism were rampant due to inadequate security. Again, these problems were not corrected."

The city of New York, by comparison, had no advance warning of 9/11. Yet Mayor Giuliani and Governor Pataki displayed tremendous leadership in managing a chaotic situation in the city. Their leadership inspired confidence in their ability to manage the emergency and coordinate federal aid In contrast, despite knowing days in advance about the coming hurricane, Governor Blanco and Mayor Nagin seem to have done little beyond encouraging residents to leave the city or gather at the Superdome. City school and transit buses could have carried 12,000 persons per run out of the city, yet they sat idle in parking lots under water - while both the Mayor and Governor criticized the federal response.

In the coming days, tens of billions of dollars will likely flood Louisiana to address the costs of rescue, clean up, and rebuilding. The question is not whether Congress should provide for those in need, but whether state and local officials who have been derelict in their duty should be trusted with that money. Their record during Hurricane Katrina and the long history of public corruption in Louisiana convinces me that that they should not.

Sincerely,

Tom Tancredo

Hey there Preachingtothechoir, how are you doing?

Here's what I know about it (the Voting Rights Act renewal in the House) and Reps that opted not to vote for the entire bill to renew it....

(if I was as efficient at searching as Brian is, well, I'd just include the relevant article.... but, in the absense of that... here goes):

Many of the Reps that voted NO on the renewal of HR9 (Fannie Lou Hamer, Rosa Parks, and Coretta Scott King Voting Rights Act [Reauthorization] - it must be voted for authorization every 20 years or so) based that decision on the fact that Rep Steve King of IA 'offered' an amendment to the main bill that would official restrict all ballots to being printed/distributed in English (only).

Yes, I realize there are some exception to the following rule, but here is the 'core logic': if you're a US citizen you're supposed to be able to speak English - it is a specific requirement of the naturalization process. And recall that, ONLY US citizens can vote (legally). So, if a person is either pursuing citizenship (and happens to lack fluent in English), well, they can't vote anyway. If a person is illegal and hasn't even embarked on the citizenship process, well, - whether they can speak English or not - doesn't matter. They are not citizens - they can't vote (legally). In short, if a person doesn't know English, they probably shouldn't be voting.

Now, as for a couple of exceptions to the rule, here's a couple:
One that is cited is for people that apply for [political] asylum. When granted, these people often come from non-English speaking countries and are 'processed' in relatively quickly - fast enough to make a command of English not very feasible for most. So, it is possible, there will be newly-minted US citizens that are not fluent in US English. Pratically-speaking, this is a fairly small number of people that are granted citizenship and to me at least, I don't consider it a huge problem

Another, might be where a US citizen marries someone from outside the country (a citizen from another country - say, a non-English speaking country) and then brings them to the US whereby they gain residency / citizenship relatively quickly. So, then the question is so, how did these people meet and strike up a relationship unless they both happened to know a non-English language mutually, or didn't communicate at all!
This are is a huge vacuum of time and resources for USCIS and is scrutinized in much detail (it's historically and presently been a magnet for all sorts of fraud and criminal schemes)

The final vote in the House was 185 (No) to 238 (Yes) so it was reauthorized anyway. It's too bad that they couldn't have found a way to separate an 'English only' ballot requirement instead of piggybacking onto the VRA... but, who knows...

Just trying to explain what I know about it, that's all. The nuances of the subject can be complex at times, but whatever way the solution falls, someone has their toes stepped on in the result.

HTH

Originally Posted by jean

Originally Posted by Preachingtothechoir

He also voted against sending aid to Hurricane Katrina survivors and against extending the Voting Rights Act.

Well, he had my vote until I read the above. How could he be against Black Americans, we are citizens, voters and taxpayers.

Please don't be too quick to judge until we know what his reason was. And the reporter didn't have to throw that tidbit in because it has nothing to do with the subject matter. Perhaps he wanted to turn some against Tancredo.

I'd vote for him in a second because he is passionate about illegal immigration and has been for years. Finished reading his book "In Mortal Danger" which should be required reading for all citizens.

Tancredo said:

[quote:17tc7wn7]"We are going to take on this issue of illegal immigration, and we are going to secure our borders, and we're going to do it come hell or high water,"

Go Tom!!![/quote:17tc7wn7]

I agree, we need to know why he voted against it before prejudgeing him.
I may be a fool, but for some reason, I trust this man.