Posted on 10/18/2002 7:43:53 AM PDT by dennisw
| Tancredo's remarks draw new round of criticism By M.E. Sprengelmeyer, Rocky Mountain News
WASHINGTON - Rep. Tom Tancredo wants federal officials to round up illegal immigrants trying to get identification cards at the Mexican consulate in Denver - an idea others dismissed as unrealistic, unconstitutional and a scare tactic. "What kind of bizarre Tom Tancredo planet is he living on?" asked Andrew Hudson, Denver Mayor Wellington Webb's spokesman, when told about the congressman's latest comments against making accommodations for illegal immigrants. The Littleton Republican, a leader in the national immigration reform movement, is incensed that Denver plans to recognize matricula consular cards the consulate issues to Mexican nationals, whether they're in the United States legally or not. The cards, which help the holders gain access to services that require identification, such as bank accounts, hospital care or basic city services, do not disclose a person's immigration status. Tancredo was angered when he saw photographs in the Rocky Mountain News showing long lines of people at the consulate waiting to apply for the cards. In an interview Wednesday, Tancredo said he planned to write a letter to the Immigration and Naturalization Service asking officials what they plan to do. "The only people who would of course need such a card are people who are here illegally," Tancredo said. "And they (the INS) should certainly have a bus sitting right there next to these lines of people, and as they pick up a card (the INS should) pick them up and say . . . 'Are you here legally? Then you don't need this. And if you're not, then come with me.' " Tancredo said Thursday that the INS has the legal authority to act because he says only illegal immigrants have a need for the consular identification. He said the purpose of the letter is to embarrass the INS. "I know they're using any logic, as tortured as it possibly may be, to avoid doing their job," Tancredo said. "We all know they do not wish to do their job. It's a culture in the INS that I want to attack here.'' Tancredo said people who are in the country illegally should be arrested and "they should take them to start the process of deportation." The statements drew Tancredo yet another round of criticism in the wake of his attempt to get the INS to investigate the family of a Mexican-born student who admitted in newspaper articles that he was in the country illegally. "I think it's a scare tactic," Hudson said. "I think he's trying to exploit the issue and exploit himself as a champion of this cause. He has the luxury of making these outrageous statements. We, as a city, are dealing with the management of a very diverse population." Some immigrants at the consulate Thursday said Tancredo's statements could scare away Mexican nationals who need services. "Who will come if you know you'll be taken away?" said Martin Gutierrez of Denver, who has been in the United States for five years. "It's too dangerous." INS spokesman Bill Strassberger said the agency does not - and cannot - target gatherings of people for immigration checks without cause. "It's dangerous when anyone starts making an assumption that all of a particular nationality, or all of a particular group, are illegal and should be deported," Strassberger said in response to Tancredo's remarks. He said people often call the INS asking them to round up day laborers gathered in parking lots or others suspected of being illegal immigrants. Courts have ruled that type of targeted enforcement unconstitutional, he said. "We've had cases thrown out where we've stopped someone and not been able to articulate the specific reasons why," he said. Mexican Consul General Leticia Calzada said the Denver consulate, established in 1893, operates under authority of the 1963 Vienna Convention and the U.S.-Mexico Consular Convention of 1942. Calzada said 200 to 300 people visit the consulate every day, seeking help with passports, identification and a host of other services. She would not directly respond to Tancredo's latest statements. "I don't have any opinion," she said. "All the opinions of the congresspersons of the United States have my respect - all the members. There is a voice maybe that is different . . . . It's only one voice among many other voices that are having good comments about what we are doing."
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Telling that a Democrat considers a planet bizarre where the law means something.
Tancredo speaks the truth again.
The only service an illegal immigrant needs is transportation back to their home country!
What a concept, actually requesting that the INS do something half way sensible and effective. It outrages the multiculturalist diversity-monger America-haters.
Uhhhh....I'm thinking planet Earth. But one does have to wonder about what kind of Rocky Mountain High it takes to think average everyday people don't want the laws about immigration and the borders enforced.
The attack on Representative Tancredo is getting kind of hilarious. Except, of course, for the fact that our country's future is at stake here.
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