Thread: Burr is cheered by opponents of the bill

Friday, June 29, 2007
Burr is cheered by opponents of the bill when he joins those who vote to reject it
http://www.winstonsalemjournal.com/serv ... 3351828262

By Mary M Shaffrey and Bertrand M. Guti?rrez
JOURNAL REPORTERS


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WASHINGTONSen. Richard Burr, R-N.C. said that his office has received "dozens" of threatening calls in recent weeks over the immigration bill, which he voted yesterday to kill.

Callers asked him to vote against the bill and reminded his staff that they knew where he lived, Burr said. He said he alerted Capitol Hill police to one call.

"This was a very vicious issue for a lot of people," he said.

Burr declined to offer many details about the call that was forwarded to the Capitol Hill police, other than to say that it came into his Washington office and that it did have a traceable number.

The call came in several weeks ago, and Burr said he has not heard anything about it since his office alerted the police.

Capitol Hill police did not return two phone calls yesterday.

Burr also said that his wife received a call at 2:30 a.m. yesterday morning at their Winston-Salem home to let her know how Burr should vote.

Talk-radio hosts and bloggers nationwide who saw the bill as offering amnesty have been targeting Burr, along with other Republican senators who were not immediately opposed to the bill. And yesterday about 20 people, including an official with the N.C. Republican Party, filled the hallway outside Burr's senate office in Winston-Salem to pressure him to vote against the bill.

Burr voted Tuesday to keep the immigration bill alive, despite reservations. He said at the time that unless the bill was significantly altered, he would oppose it and would vote against moving forward to final consideration.

Sen. Elizabeth Dole, R-N.C., has been opposed to the bill almost from the onset and voted against it Tuesday as well as yesterday.

Protesters outside Burr's office cheered when his staff delivered the news that Burr had voted to kill the bill.

"It was probably the 10,000 calls a day he got," said Joan Fleming, the secretary of the N.C. Republican Party.

"That's what changed his mind. He needs to get a backbone."

The bill proposed by Sens. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and John McCain, R-Ariz., was shot down by a wide alliance of strange bedfellows, a sign of how complicated the immigration issue has become.

And even within the group at Burr's office, there were differences of opinion on how to deal with immigration.

Most said they want the United States to take control of its borders, but few agreed on what to do with the 12 million foreigners estimated to be in the United States without legitimate visas.

Some supported the wholesale deportation of illegal immigrants.
Nathan Tabor, who ran unsuccessfully in 2004 for the seat now held by Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-5th, said that they should be deported, but not all at once.

"If you bust all 12 million out, you'd have some industries collapse," Tabor said. "Is it opportunistic? Yeah. It has to be, because you have to protect your businesses."

Both Burr and Dole have said they would be opposed to wholesale deportation. Instead they prefer a system where employer verification checks are so strong that there is no incentive for illegal immigrants to remain in the United States, and they therefore return home of their own volition.

Joyce Krawiec, a Kernersville resident who waited in Burr's office, shares this view. She said that more focus should be placed on employers. They should be held accountable for hiring illegal immigrants. And there should be a system by which employers could verify work papers, such as Social Security cards, birth certificates or driver's licenses.

To her, the point of view that immigrants who work for lower wages have helped the economy by tempering consumer prices doesn't matter.
"I'll pay more for lettuce," she said.

Larry Wooten, the president of the N.C. Farm Bureau, said that comprehensive immigration reform is important for that reason.

"The ultimate issue is we need guest workers in agriculture to harvest the crops, and we are either going to have to import our workers or import our food," he said.

• Mary M. Shaffrey can be reached at 202-662-7672 or at mshaffrey@wsjournal.com.
• Bertrand M. Gutierrez can be reached at 727-7283 or at bgutierrez@wsjournal.com.

There was a lot of viciousnous in this country in the years leading up to
the American Revolution, too. People who were not being represented by their government. You know the story.
The American People have just narrowly missed having their right to a representative government bashed by the very people we elected
to protect those rights. Yes, the People are angry and rightfully so.
Politicians who ignore the will of the people may be threatened,
But no one was dragged out into the street by angry mobs over this scamnesty. Let's just hope that politicians understand that Americans will fight for their rights.

If there actually was such a call, we cannot rule out the possibility that it was placed by someone who wished to make the anti-illegal immigrant group look bad. I am pleased that Burr voted against cloture, but I don't trust him on this issue. I don't live in his state, but I am close enough to come and campaign for his opponent.

I do live in North Carolina and will do all i can in 2010 to vote him out of office.