Thread: Dem candidates vow to pursue immigration bill

Sunday, July 1, 2007 - Page updated at 02:03 AM

Dem candidates vow to pursue immigration bill
By BETH FOUHY

The Associated Press

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — Taking a swipe at a potential GOP presidential rival, Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton on Saturday criticized Fred Thompson for suggesting illegal Cuban immigrants pose a terrorist threat.

"I was appalled when one of the people running for, or about to run for, the Republican nomination talked about Cuban refugees as potential terrorists," Clinton told Hispanic elected officials.

Thompson, who is expected to join the race soon, made the comment Wednesday in South Carolina.

The actor and former Tennessee senator was criticizing an immigration bill in the Senate, contending it would make the country more vulnerable to terrorism.

Noting the United States had apprehended 1,000 people from Cuba in 2005, Thompson said, "I don't imagine they're coming here to bring greetings from [Cuban leader Fidel] Castro. We're living in the era of the suitcase bomb."

A video clip of Thompson's remark circulated on YouTube and has drawn considerable attention in Florida, a key early primary state home to many Republican-leaning Cuban Americans.

Thompson spokeswoman Burson Snyder declined to comment Saturday, pointing to a note Thompson posted Thursday on his campaign blog saying he had been referring to Cuban spies, not immigrants.

All the major Democratic presidential candidates were at Walt Disney World for a forum sponsored by the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials. Of the GOP candidates, only California Rep. Duncan Hunter accepted the group's invitation to speak.

With the failure of an immigration-overhaul bill in the Senate still fresh, all the candidates vowed to pursue comprehensive immigration overhaul in the future. All said they support a path to citizenship for the approximately 12 million immigrants living illegally in the United States.

Illinois Sen. Barack Obama defended his vote last year to build a 698-mile fence across the U.S.-Mexico border, saying it was just one component of a robust immigration bill he had worked hard to negotiate.

"Do I believe fences make good neighbors and are the right approach? No, I don't believe that," Obama said.

Clinton and Delaware Sen. Joseph Biden also voted for the bill containing the fence provision.


Biden drew applause when he noted that up to 40 percent of illegal immigrants were not Hispanic.

Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards told the crowd his hometown of Robbins, N.C., was now half Hispanic. "They came for the same reason my parents came: They wanted their children to have a better life," Edwards said.

Several candidates laced their remarks with Spanish, with varying degrees of success.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson won cheers as the first Hispanic candidate to run for president. He, too, spoke Spanish, calling supporters "Mi gente, mi familia," or my people, my family.

GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, meanwhile, courting Iowa conservatives, found himself answering questions about the role his Mormon faith would play should he win the race.

Romney told one questioner at a forum co-sponsored by a Christian group that "we have exactly the same values" and said there is no religious litmus test for candidates. The former Massachusetts governor dismissed suggestions of a conflict between his religion and his ability to govern.

The questions arose as Romney prepared to join five other Republican candidates at a forum in Pella sponsored by two of the most important forces in Iowa Republican politics: the Iowa Christian Alliance and Iowans for Tax Relief. Pella is 40 miles south of Des Moines.

Romney and his rivals paraded before about 750 conservative activists, using half-hour chunks to rail against abortion rights and gay marriage, and offer tough talk about building a fence along the border with Mexico. All pledged to cut taxes and shrink government.

Loudest cheers of the day went to Rep. Tom Tancredo, of Colorado, who railed against illegal immigration. "If you want to call me a single-issue candidate, that's fine as long as you know my issue is the survival of this country," he said.

Other rivals focused on Democrats, mainly Clinton.

"If you want to make sure Hillary Clinton is not elected next year, you better vote for Tommy Thompson," said the former Wisconsin governor.

Romney and Thompson were joined at the forum by Mike Huckabee, Sam Brownback, Tancredo and Hunter.
Copyright © 2007 The Seattle Times Company

It is time for us to change the rules of cubans. Letting them have a green card because they step foot on american soil has not help us keep out illegals from other latin american countries. time to stop all illegal immigration regardless of where it comes from. leaders of other lands think that they have a say on american politics because we have illegals from their lands. Send every one of them home and then we don't need to worry about the leaders saying how they citizens are being mistreated.

In every call, fax or email, we need to tell politicians..."demand Mexico and other foreign countries reform, not us!"


"it is not the responsibility of American tax payers to "fund" the world, when foreign leaders refuse to help their own!"

And, our laws should not be bent, broken or made new just for illegals or new immigrants.

England and France have done this, and look what happened to them!

I know some wonderful prosperous and intelligent Cubans that I admire. However, I feel the same way about Cubans as I do others. If you don't like the conditions of your homeland, stay home and change it.

Hillary is poiting a finger but remember how they voted. Talk is cheep and actions speak louder than words.

http://www.alipac.us/modules.php?name=F ... 826#405826

Dixie

Let's call their offices and ask them if they have fences or live in a protected or gated community. If so, then why? They don't need a barrier. Do they use secret service right beside them? If so, then why shouldn't our border be covered mile to mile. Are their lives any more valuable than ours and our families? I don't think so.

Tell President Bush to take that fence down around the White House and to remove those sharp shooters off the roof if barriers and guns do not work. We should be on the border "armed" as if it mattered and protected with a physical barrier and anything else to keep the invaders out.

Their arguments are just simply ridiculous. ENFORCE THE LAWS.

Psalm 91

We are making a gigantic mistake allowing and bringing all of these people from nations that "HATE" us. We are not having a "love fest" with these individuals that believe we are the infidels and yet we keep bringing them in by the thousands and allowing them in by the thousands (illegal aliens).

CNN had a special on this weekend with Christiane Amanpour from the London area I believe. She was interviewing at least one muslim cleric and showing the activities and dogma that is rapidly covering Britiain. They believe that "Sharia" Law (women are worth half of men, cutting people's hands off for crimes, etc.) will eventually prevail and be the law of England and elsewhere. Sheer numbers will help them to achieve this.

Now we learn that 25,000 Iraqi refugees are said to be coming to America per Ted Kennedy. Why are we not up in arms as our nation is constantly receiving thousands and thousands of individuals from other nations truly bent on destroying us. We do not have the capabliity to do backgroud checks on them all (passport problems reveal the truth of this) and yet we seem to be giving in to their demands of special benefits and rights and facilities and seclusion. We should not allow individuals who do not want to assimilate and who want to follow rules of a belief that "wills" to destroy and kill America. Let them go somewhere else that has a system and belief similar to their own.

This is not a problem that can be solved by words or by the idea of turning a blind eye. We have laid out the red carpet and invited the Enemy within.

Nashville, TN is overrun with thousands and thousands of supposed refugees with many thousands more believed to be on their way. How can a Southern city maintain its identity with such numbers flooding in and changing and harming the culture and community. Who are these people? Nashville is lost in the sense of numbers and in the huge illegal alien population has only aggravated the situation. Who would ever dream that you would travel to Nashville or other small town communities and be isolated from the English language, American life and culture, and yet it is happening there and everywhere.

We must speak up and tell them no more.

I also noted a similarity in the face covering of the recent illegal alien rallies and the face covering of the millions in Britain and elsewhere. When I see the illegal alien young people here demonstrating in the streets, wearing masks or bandanas to cover their faces and gesturing very rudely, I am reminded of the Old West and bank robbers and criminals, up to "No Good," and out to hurt, steal or commit some type of crime.

OUR NATION HAS BEEN HELD UP, NOW WHERE IS A SHERIFF and a posse that will round up the bad guys and restore LAW AND ORDER.

John 3:16

ITA. They treat them so poorly that they feel the need to escape, then when they arrive her UNINVITED we become the targets of criticism, yet their homelands do not want them back. Its time to seal the borders deport those who do not self deport and put a moratorium on immigration until we can figure out who is here and why they are really here.

I am sick of the blanket slogans of the delusional elitist about how hard working they all are by those who have the luxury of being able to send them to our neighborhoods after they have cleaned THEIR HOUSE, MOWED THEIR LAWNS, TAKEN CARE OF THEIR CHIDREN AND GARDENS AND COOKED THEIR MEALS in exchange for slave wages.

WhatMattersMost wrote

It's Time to Rescind the 14th Amendment

EXACTLY!

It's obvious that the Democratic Presidential Candidates are banking on individuals to vote for them that support the amnesty bill.

This can not be said about the Blue Dog Dems of Congress that have joined the Immigration Caucus and have voted against these two Amnesty bills.

It is a time in American politics that you can not blame an entire party for the outcome of the immigration issue. You must look long and hard at the individual candidates and vote for a candidate that represents your personal values.

Forget the party, vote for the individual candidate's qualities.

We will loose this war against illegal immigration if we single out either party. Senators from both parties defeated the amnesty bills.

Dixie