GOP congressman asks immigration to raid Democratic senator's news conference

[Purveyor]

Source: Associated Press

WASHINGTON --A Republican presidential candidate on Tuesday called for a federal immigration raid at a meeting in the U.S. Capitol hosted by the Senate's No. 2 Democrat.

No one from Immigration and Customs Enforcement showed up despite GOP Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado's call, Assistant Majority Leader Dick Durbin of Illinois said afterward.

"His hatred for people who are immigrants is boundless," Durbin said.

Tancredo issued a news release saying he had called federal immigration officials to warn them that illegal immigrants might show up at Durbin's meeting promoting the DREAM Act.

That bill would create a path to legality for illegal immigrants who plan to attend college or join the military and who came to the United States with their families before they turned 16.

"Just because these illegal aliens are being used for political gain doesn't mean they get immunity from the law," Tancredo said.



Read more: http://www.bnd.com/326/story/160397.html

[muntrv]

1. Tom is a nazi.

[aquart]

18. I was thinking "insane."

But I could go with "insane nazi." The term isn't necessarily redundant.

[Bozita]

2. sounds like a Tom DeLay stunt

I seem to recall DeLay using the FAA to try to trackdown hooky-playing Texas legislators. Dems, of course.

[gratuitous]

22. DeLay did NOT use the FAA, so stop saying that

DeLay used the Department of Homeland Security to try to track down Democratic Texas state legislators who refused to attend state sessions so as to deny the Republicans a quorum to conduct business. Business that indeed didn't survive judicial scrutiny.

[Justitia]

25. DeLay used SEVERAL federal agencies, including the FAA AND DHS

"On the afternoon of May 12th, a senior aide to DeLay called an official with the Federal Aviation Administration and asked the agency to track the location of tail number N711RD, Laney’s plane. The staffer didn’t say why he wanted the information, and F.A.A. officials later said that they assumed there was a safety issue involving the plane. According to a subsequent report by the Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security, a DeLay staffer also contacted D.H.S. “requesting assistance in determining the location of an aircraft believed to be overdue.” By the end of the day, the F.A.A. had told DeLay’s staff that local officials had traced the plane to Ardmore. (The same day, DeLay’s staff also contacted a senior official at the Justice Department, asking whether federal law-enforcement authorities would assist in arresting the missing legislators. The Department’s Inspector General later issued a report saying that another Justice official had decided that the request was “wacko,” and the Department refused to get involved.)

“It didn’t bother me that the F.A.A. was looking for me, because I want them to know where I am when I’m in the air,” Laney said. “The chance of me surviving if I put one of those things down at three hundred miles per hour is a lot better if they can find me fast. The problem was that they misled the F.A.A. about why they were looking for me. And what really bothers me is that they had Homeland Security, the F.A.A., and the whole federal government looking for me, but it was a reporter for the Dallas Morning News who found us first anyway.”

http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/03/06/060306fa_fact?currentPage=2

As a TX Dem, this story had me on the edge of my seat for weeks.
Those TX Dems are heroes to me.

[gratuitous]

27. Shows what I know

I thought DeLay had just sicced Homeland Security on the recalcitrant legislators; but my memory gets a little foggy with all the GOP shenanigans, there are so many. Still, it's a pretty good question of why these federal agencies did DeLay's bidding when he was so patently involved in a political, not federal, brouhaha.

[Justitia]

28. The agencies didn't do what DeLay wanted, they blew him off after they figured it out

He misled several (like the FAA and the TX Rangers) into thinking that he was concerned for their safety, but word got out about what he was doing and they dropped any assistance they initially provided.

It was really funny when he contacted the sheriff of Ardmore (where the Dems fled to) and the sheriff went on TV and said they were safe from arrest in HIS town.

It was a gripping story here in TX, high drama. And it's not the first time the Dem party in the TX legislature took drastic measures to prevent egregious abuses of republicans in our state house. Famously in the 70s, several Dem legislators scrambled out of the state house and hid out in an Austin apt for weeks so that the repukes could not get a quorum to smash something down our throat. They were gravely threatened w/all kinds of stuff then too.

TX Dems are heroes to me for the lengths they will go to to protect the rights of us in the minority here in this state.

[pennylane100]

3. I do not think we should grant a blanket amnesty

but it seems only humane to grant citizenship to young people who were brought to this country by their parents when they were young. It is one thing when you know you are breaking a country's laws but children do not get to make that decision, of course we should let the stay here.

[WorseBeforeBetter]

8. And separate them from their parents?

Break up families? Yeah, that's humane.

[silverojo]

13. What's this "break up families" BS?

The kids can simply go back to Mexico/Central America with the parents, until they re-enter the country legally. After all, the leaders of these countries (esp. Mexico) claim that even former Mexicans who are U.S. citizens now are still Mexican citizens, anyway. It's not like the cops are going to lock these kids up in a dungeon. :eyes:

And if you're so concerned about "breaking up families", do you ever wonder what happens to children of black or white people, when both parents are arrested and jailed for running a meth lab, or whatever? Do you ever wonder, or even care? The thing is, when your parents are criminals, bad things happen to the kids--that's not the fault of the cops or the government, it's the fault of the criminals themselves.

(And yes, people who enter illegally are criminals. People who forge documents to get jobs are criminals. People who commit identity theft to pretend they're citizens are criminals. To determine whether someone is a criminal, ask yourself one simple question: If *I* did this, would I ever see daylight again?)

I just don't get the reverse racism that goes on in this particular issue. Why is it a tragedy when bad things happen to Hispanic kids, but if these things happen to the children of blacks, whites, or Asians, nobody gives a damn? Why is it that Hispanic people are supposed to be allowed special treatment, while people of all other races from all other countries must obey the citizenship laws or face deportation?

This is the one question that none of the pro-illegal-alien supporters refuse to answer.....

[LeFleur1]

16. Children

Aren't we speaking of US citizens? Children who have been born in the USA?

[Lance_Boyle]

20. no - to clarify

this article talks about children born abroad, whose parents brought them to the US illegally before they turned 16.

[High Plains]

24. So, Tancredo's got your vote?

Looks like you're on the same page.

[WorseBeforeBetter]

30. Because, Lou Dobbs, my government and Corporate America...

have created conditions in which "brown people" (since you seem to identify with colors) are desperate enough to risk life and limb to enter the country illegally from Mexico and Central America. They're human beings. Quite frankly, I'm so disgusted with what's going on in this country and our role in the world that I say let 'em have it. Hell, let's give it back to the Native Americans.



You have no idea about my empathy for people of any and all colors, so back the phuck off. White doesn't trump black doesn't trump brown ... project elsewhere.

[proud2BlibKansan]

4. Most disgusting story I have read in a long time.

Tancredo makes me literally sick to my stomach.

[Newsjock]

5. Tancredo '08

Which is precisely why he deserves to be the GOP nominee.

[populistdriven]

6. :D !

:rofl:

[proud2BlibKansan]

9. Works for me!

[monktonman]

7. I bet he likes at least half of the bill

"who plan to attend college or join the military"

Anyone wanna guess which half?

[MadMaddie]

10. Brownshirts anyone...this guy is nuts.

[razors edge]

11. Do the RICO prosecutors have their own thugs?

Maybe they should rout the fund raising parties of the right.

[fedupfisherman]

12. Good for Tom

Illegals are law breakers and have to go.

NOW

[Unrepentant Fenian]

17. fedupfisherman

fedupfisherman,

Or should I call you CRC? It looks like you might get around!

http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=1&f=5&t=632140

[LanternWaste]

26. I'll stand between you...

I'll stand between you and my g/f (she is what you people call an illegal), because some people believe that humans are more important than imaginary red and black lines on a map.

But let me know if she tries to take your job....

[WorseBeforeBetter]

31. Are they "evil-doers" too? (n/t)

[silverojo]

14. While I think Tancredo's actions were really retarded,

This statement is even more retarded: "His hatred for people who are immigrants is boundless," Durbin said.

First off, they're not immigrants--immigrants arrive legally, just as my immigrant forebears did. People who sneak in here illegally are illegal aliens (and no, that's not a GOP term, that's a legal term).

Secondly, just because Tancredo wants people to come here legally does NOT mean he hates immigrants.

Finally, it's pretty presumptuous to imply that all "immigrants" come here illegally. It's also insulting to those hard-working immigrants who study so diligently to pass their citizenship tests. These people do not deserve to be lumped into the same category as the illegal aliens who come here, demanding amnesty instead of just going through the legal process as all the honest people do.

Tancredo is indeed a right-wing fucktard, but *lying* about a fucktard simply proves that there are TWO fucktards involved in the situation. Attack him for his VIEWS on immigration, but don't attack him personally by accusing him of hating immigrants.

[atreides1]

19. "...just as my immigrant forebears did."

When did they get here?

The reason I'm asking is because prior to 1892 there was really no immigration program.

Naturalization Act of 1790 Stipulated that "any alien, being a free white person, may be admitted to become a citizen of the United States"
1875 Supreme Court declared that regulation of US immigration is the responsibility of the Federal Government.
1882 The Chinese Exclusion Act prohibited certain laborers from immigrating to the United States.
1885 and 1887 Alien Contract Labor laws which prohibited certain laborers from immigrating to the United States.
1891 The Federal Government assumed the task of inspecting, admitting, rejecting, and processing all immigrants seeking admission to the U.S.

[pampango]

23. These "immigrants" from Mexico and other Central American countries

have been coming to the US for decades with a wink and a nod from our country that what they were doing was illegal. Their parents and grandparents made livings in the US, some staying to live here and some coming and going with the demands of our economy.

In the last 15 years the pace of this "immigration" has picked up as NAFTA has severely damaged the agricultural sectors of these countries. We have every right to enforce our borders and our immigration laws, but let's not look at those who are already here as some kind of sneaky criminals who broke into the country knowing full well that we did not welcome them here.

They had every reason to believe that there are "laws" and there are "laws". Some are "real" and enforced and others are not, perhaps for good reasons, and can be ignored. We may now feel that they had no right to decide which were the "real" laws, but in practice that is what had been happening for decades. Most came to our country knowing that it was "illegal", but that it was also mutually beneficial for themselves and their American employers.

Technically they broke the law, so if we wish to treat them as criminals that would be legal. As liberals I would hope that we could view their "crimes" in a more humane manner and treat them as human beings not as criminals.

[bbgrunt]

15. it is beyond me why they are wasting political capital

pushing stuff for illegal immigrants when they won't consider impeachment or protecting the constitution.

[Vidar]

21. We need another revolution. A guillotine is an excellent solution for people like Tancredo.

[classysassy]

29. More tom foolery

from that shithead.