Posted on 04/12/2005 4:21:41 PM PDT by 4.1O dana super trac pak
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Congressman Tom Tancredo (CO-06) today invited both President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice on a trip with the Representative to the Arizona border where American patriots have assembled to form the largest neighborhood watch program in the nation, after calling them 'vigilantes' without ever witnessing or hearing their concern in person.
"I encourage the President to give concerned law abiding American citizens the benefit of the doubt before taking the side of law breaking illegals," said Tancredo, Chairman of the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus. "After all, it's his job to work for us, not them."
"This is no different than the literally thousands of neighborhood watches that are organized on almost every Main Street in the country. I hope he'll join me in visiting these folks to help clear up any misinformation about who they are and what they are doing," he concluded.
Representative Tancredo will be happy to clear any prior engagements to accomodate the President's schedule.
I wish they would go meet with the minutemen.
There won't be any action to observe.
Tancredo is grandstanding here.
"Tancredo is grandstanding here."
Yep, and what is the president doing?
i doubt very much that the president of the united states would go to the u.s. border with mexico.
si.
Fox would have a cow.
I think Tancredo would make a great president!
No. I don't believe he is. He is, however, bringing long needed pressure on the gubbmint to do what it's supposed to do.
Go Tom.
FMCDH(BITS)
Which is all he ever does. All he cares about is getting his ego stroked by his worshipers and receiving the next check for his PAC.
Except for the booze and guns and lack of LEO suport.
Tancredo is a grandstanding buffoon.
I'd like to reword that...
...bringing long needed pressure on the gubbmint to do one of the very few things it's supposed to do.
FMCDH(BITS)
Last I heard he was talking to the troops at Ft. Hood. All I'm saying is that this press release is intended only as red meat for Tancredo supporters. It's not serious. In fact, it's utterly ridiculous for the reasons I pointed out.
I hope the President takes his offer, he needs to go and see for himself how porous these borders are down here and how we really need more than blockwatchers. We need protection.
I see Napolitano our govenor of Az is taking it seriously.
Arizona lawmakers: Police must enforce immigration law:
http://www.harktheherald.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=524278mode=thread8order=08thold=0
Jacques Billeaud THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
PHOENIX -- Many local police agencies in Arizona, the busiest illegal entry point on the nation's porous southern border, don't want the added responsibility some Arizona lawmakers want to give them to enforce federal immigration laws.
They say it's already the responsibility of the federal government and that such a massive undertaking would detract from their traditional
roles in protecting communities from crime.
But some Arizona lawmakers say the federal government isn't doing enough about the thousands of people who sneak across the border each year.
A proposal in the Arizona Legislature would authorize state and local police agencies to investigate and apprehend illegal immigrants. It also would let local police transport migrants to detention centers across state lines.
The law does not draw a distinction between criminal migrants and otherwise law-abiding migrants.
More than any other state in recent years, Arizona has been dogged by a heavy flow of illegal immigrants after the government tightened enforcement in El Paso, Texas, and San Diego during the mid-1990s.
Even though immigrants provide the American economy with cheap labor, Arizona and other border states shoulder huge health care and education costs for illegal workers and their families. Frustrated lawmakers in Arizona have proposed several bills this year aimed at confronting illegal immigration.
Nearly a month ago, Gov. Janet Napolitano signed a bill into law that gives local police the power to arrest migrant smugglers but doesn't provide additional money to do it.
And the president is still doing nothing red meat or not.
I agree. Tancredo is NOT grandstanding. He is responding the best way he can.
He's telling President that before he calls this vigilantism, the President should come see for himself.
GWB probably won't -- but the point is made that he is invited. Also, it brings to mind the quotation about "contempt prior to investigation".
It's Tancredo's job to pass legislation. Bush hasn't vetoed anything yet. Tell Tom to be more persuasive.
So, when the president was campaigning, did Tancredo invite Bush to travel to California? Like the president needs an invitation. Grandstanding.
The president needs to grow a pair and confront mexico and the citizens of this country. When it comes to border control Bush should just change his name to Gore or Kerry.
Nah, they don't want anything really accomplished. If Tancredo's plan was actually passed, then they'd have to find something else to whine about and attack the President over.
I wonder why it is that the MSM is not using this, and the Minutemen activity in general, against GWB and the GOP.
This is only about bolstering his reputation among those inclined to follow him. And that's kind of sad, knowing that he's courting the crowd that is impressed with absurd press releases.
I don't consider him grand standing. I consider him trying to put a good light on some terrifically brave men and women willing to do the job the government won't do.
Exactly, as Dobbs said, put our troops protecting OUR borders instead of always protecting the borders of other countries.
There are at least as many people who benefit from illegal emigrants cheap labor as here are people bothered by them crossing the border.
A hundred years ago the emigration law gave each nation a quota of people that it could allow to emigrate to the USA. To prove they were legal, the law required that each prospective emigrant had to arrive at Ellis Island with emigration papers from his native land and a valid birth certificate.
But tons of Italians and some other east Europeans arrived at Ellis Island with no emigration papers and no birth certificate. The law said they could NOT legally be allowed into the US. There were lots of Italians who arrived in the USA With Out Papers. Many bought passage to the US despite the fact they could not get emigration papers in Italy. When they arrived at Ellis Island the emigration officials started using a short hand name to refer to them. They called them as WOPS .... for those With Out Papers. But we let those illegal emigrants in by the Brooklyn full.
There were many including three time Democratic Candidate William Jennings Bryan who tried their best to get illegal emigration stopped. Jennings went down to massive defeat three times.
There is nearly always a good market in the USA for cheap labor. Fighting the emigration is a political cause that will not play. It has been a fact for over a hundred years. When there is plenty of demand for cheap labor, a majority of voters will not support stopping their emigration.
Maybe one day the borders will be like the South Bronx used to be, every politician had to pay a visit.
Don't you remember that Rove (on Bush's order) told Tancredo never to darken the door to the whitehouse again?
I read somewhere here on FR that Delay told Tancredo never to expect a leadership job.
Doesen't sound much like they care if he is persuasive or not.
"But we let those illegal emigrants in by the Brooklyn full." That's probably how the mafia got it's start. Real good for the country!!!
My recollection is that that report turned out to be bogus, although I'm less than positive about that. There were some threads about it here at the time.
I hadn't heard about the DeLay story, but it might well be true. Tancredo didn't help himself with this press release. In order to advance in politics, you either have to gain power and use it wisely or "play well with others." Tancredo has done neither.
I don't consider him grand standing. I consider him trying to put a good light on some terrifically brave men and women willing to do the job the government won't do.
I don't consider him grand standing. I consider him trying to put a good light on some terrifically brave men and women willing to do the job the government won't do.
Exactly, as Dobbs said, put our troops protecting OUR borders instead of always protecting the borders of other countries.
Exactly, as Dobbs said, put our troops protecting OUR borders instead of always protecting the borders of other countries.
Absolutely.
Maybe that's where President Bush belongs?
"All he cares about is getting his ego stroked by his worshipers and receiving the next check for his PAC."
I believe that could apply to Bush also.
Don't speak of my Congressman that way!
He is a great man!
He takes heat for his unpopular positions and doesn't care.
He favors principle over popularity.
Do you know him personally?
Increased border patrol, increased use of air surveillance, increased arrest reports, etc. mean nothing to those people.
Maybe Bush hasn't yet done enough, but I don't see Tom Tancredo doing anything but issuing press releases and making appearances on O'Reilly. And why is he inviting the President to Arizona, when he represents Colorado?
I think I will invite the President to visit the University of Colorado and send a message to Ward Churchill, a subject on which I have not heard Mr. Tancredo speak.
The illegal immigration problem is one of the most simple problems to solve. Yet nobody has any brains to listen.
Whine whine whine..all they do.
It makes no difference what his motivation is. Most politicians know how to use the press to get attention. The real question is, whose grandstanding serves America's interests better, Tancredo's, or Bush's when Bush called the Minutemen vigilantes in a most open and provacative way? The answer, of course, is Tancredo's. And about his job being to pass laws, two comments. The Founders wanted Congress to provide oversight of Executive law enforcement activities. Tancredo's activities can be construed in that light. Second, why pass more laws when Bush refuses to enforce the laws already on the books? Those folks aren't called illegals for nothing.
To their credit, they've largely been well-behaved.
I'm not at all convinced that any nation can protect its borders from illegal immigration, and the US with its vast borders faces an impossible task. Even if we somehow shut down the Mexican border, it's not that big of a deal for those intent on coming here to fly to Canada and come across that vast unguarded border. Many pay coyotes several thousand dollars to get across the border in Texas or Arizona. It'd be easier to fly to Canada and walk across into New York or North Dakota.
The President is trying to tackle the root causes of the illegal immigration. It seems to me that the best way to do that is the identify the workers that we need, and we do need quite a few, and abolish any incentive for those who don't wish to play by the rules. That's constructive. The sniping at the President and the suggestion of popular but unfeasible ideas has a different agenda altogether.
Correct.
I don´t think the Secret Service is going to be too happy with the Pres on the border anyway.
However, he could meet with the MMP at their headquarters and talk with them. That would at least show he has heard the American people. If he keeps ignoring them this snowball is going to get bigger and bigger until it causes an avalanche.
DP
DP
FOX would have a cow stolen from Texas.
Bush lacks the gonads to meet these "vigilantes" face to face.
Also lacks the gonads to stand up against Vicente Fox, but that's common knowledge already.
I sure don't recall *Gov.* Bush ever making any trips to the 'colonia's' along the TX-MX border......so I doubt Pres. Bush will worry about any trips to the AZ-MX border.
So you know him personally ?
Yep; that is what this kind of snowball always does in Arizona in the Spring...
I don't think that your comment is harsh on Bush, or overly critical/cynical about Tom Tancredo. You sound very well balanced to me. This has been Tancredo's big issue for a long time. He has been totally consistent in his belief that our borders are not adequately guarded. . . and while I do love George W. Bush, I feel that his "vigilante" remark was said hastily. He really should have gone to the AZ/Mex border first, before calling those people "vigilantes." Like Tancredo, they are just trying to bring the situation to the attention of those who are sworn to uphold the laws of the United States, and to protect American citizens.
What puzzles me is how Bush doesn't understand the frustration of people in the border states, since he was Governor of one of them for 8 years. He should know the cost and the extensive problems associated with uncontrolled illegal immigration, which Michelle Malkin calls an "Invasion."
bump
Perhaps it will not always be up to them to determine what others are to expect . . .
Bump
Mad Minutemen Disease causes delusions? Get well soon.
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