A Coloradan's immigration plea to Congress

By John Andrews On May 17 in Washington DC, the same afternoon Senate Republicans and the Bush administration were capitulating to Ted Kennedy and Democrats on amnesty for illegal aliens, I was urging the opposite policy as a witness before the House Immigration Subcommittee, with Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) presiding and Rep. Steve King (R-IA) as the ranking minority member. This was my testimony:

Mme. Chairman and committee, Colorado is close to the front line of America’s unsecured southern border. We are a conduit for massive illegal traffic into this country. I dealt with the consequences as Senate President, 2003-2005. I bring you an appeal from our state to build the fence and secure the border first and foremost. I urge you not to reward lawbreakers with green cards and citizenship.

People in my state are self-reliant in their way of life, optimistic in their outlook, and welcoming to newcomers from anywhere in the world. We are not complainers, and we are not alarmists.

But we know a problem when we see one, and we expect a bargain to be kept. Right now millions of Coloradans see the invasion of illegal aliens as an urgent problem for our state, and we attribute that problem to the federal government’s failure to keep its bargain with Americans everywhere for secure borders and the rule of law.

Amnesty for illegal aliens was supposed to fix this problem 20 years ago. It did not. Estimates today put the illegal alien population of Colorado at somewhere between 250,000 to 750,000 people – as much as 15 percent of the entire population.

Our schools, our health care system, and our criminal justice system are groaning under this burden. Our common culture and common language are fraying. We feel that Washington has let us down. It seems Congress and the White House just don’t care.

Most of those individuals who broke the law to come here or stay here are probably good people with good motives. But we cannot be sure. Some may be enemy sleepers with deadly intent. Nor can we be sure how many of them are actually here, or what countries they came from.

I can tell you that their country of origin does not matter at all to my fellow Coloradans. What matters is their disruptive impact on our state – disrupting self-government, disrupting safe neighborhoods, disrupting affordable public services.

Feeling betrayed by federal inaction, Coloradans last year started a petition to protect affordable public services by restricting them to legal residents only, except in emergencies or by federal mandate. The petition was called Defend Colorado Now. I was one of four co-chairmen, Democrats and Republicans, Anglos and Hispanics, leading that campaign.

A study done for our group, based on documented statistics in the public record, found that illegal aliens were costing state taxpayers over $1 billion a year through the extra burden on services -- and reducing family paychecks by another $2 billion a year through lower wages. (See full study at www.defendcoloradonow.org .)

In 2005, Colorado voters had approved a ballot issue to raise taxes by about $1 billion a year – which would not have been necessary if the federal government had kept its bargain for secure borders. In 2006 Coloradans set out to do what we could about the problem ourselves. Our petition fell short, but it did push the legislature into passing some of the toughest ID requirements and workplace sanctions of any state.

The legislature also asked voters to approve a lawsuit against the US Attorney General, demanding enforcement of federal immigration laws in order to give us some budgetary relief in the areas of health care, law enforcement, criminal defense and incarceration, and education. It passed by a landslide and the Colorado lawsuit is now in federal court. We’re not holding our breath, but it shows the public impatience on this issue.

I grew up in a Colorado mountain town called Buena Vista. This week there was a national news report alleging that radical Islamists have a paramilitary training camp at Buena Vista. I wonder if some of them are illegal aliens, similar to the Fort Dix cell that was recently broken up. That’s the risk we take with an unsecured border in the middle of a global war.

As the father of a Denver police officer, I have to take such threats seriously. One of my son’s fellow officers, Donald Young, was brutally murdered by an illegal alien two years ago this month. My son has a T-shirt that says “Never Forget.” Coloradans have not forgotten, but we can’t solve this problem without your help in Congress.

The help we need is for you to build the fence and secure the border, period. No amnesty for lawbreakers. No so-called comprehensive solution for cheap votes and cheap labor. Just stop the invasion.

Thank you for the opportunity to present my state’s concerns.

'Courage gone,' saith the prophet

(By John Andrews) Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the prophetic voice who helped bring down Soviet communism, gave one of the most important warnings of our time in his address at Harvard, June 1978. It is required reading for anyone who cares about America's backbone. I was reminded of it last weekend on the radio when Dr. Jack Wheeler mentioned a lack of "civilizational confidence" among US elites, and when Nathan Chambers quoted Solzhenitsyn's "decline in courage" passage (part of the Harvard address) before a Tom Tancredo campaign speech in Aurora. With my urging that you read the address in full, here is that passage:

The decline in courage may be the most striking feature which an outside observer notices in the West in our days. The Western world has lost its civil courage, both as a whole and separately, in each country, each government, each political party and of course in the United Nations. Such a decline in courage is particularly noticeable among the ruling groups and the intellectual elite, causing an impression of loss of courage by the entire society.

Of course there are many courageous individuals but they have no determining influence on public life. Political and intellectual bureaucrats show depression, passivity and perplexity in their actions and in their statements and even more so in theoretical reflections to explain how realistic, reasonable as well as intellectually and even morally warranted it is to base state policies on weakness and cowardice.

And decline in courage is ironically emphasized by occasional explosions of anger and inflexibility on the part of the same bureaucrats when dealing with weak governments and weak countries, not supported by anyone, or with currents which cannot offer any resistance. But they get tongue-tied and paralyzed when they deal with powerful governments and threatening forces, with aggressors and international terrorists.

Should one point out that from ancient times decline in courage has been considered the beginning of the end?

So ends the excerpt from Alexander Solzhenitsyn's Harvard address, June 1978. Click here to read the address in full.

Would Tancredo pick McCain for VP?

Memo to Tom: Be a Street Fighter At the May 3 debate, imagine if Tom Tancredo had said: "When I am the Republican nominee for President, I will certainly consider choosing Senator McCain as my Vice President. The kind of running mate I'm looking for is a war hero like John McCain, or a crime-fighter like Rudy Giuliani, or a defender of traditional values like Mitt Romney."

Our Colorado Congressman, bidding for the White House with scant chance of winning but a good chance for leverage over the immigration issue if he stays aggressive, landed a few jabs Thursday but didn't hit his opponents with the kind of body blows it's going to take. Mike Littwin, though distastefully snide as usual, had a point in his May 8 column on this.

My fantasy comeback about McCain for VP was there for the taking after the senator curtly said no to a question about his accepting Tom for VP. The trick is to use any question or topic, no matter what, for a zinger on the immigration issue and America's "mortal danger," as Tancredo's book title has it. Even the organ donor question mentioned by Littwin could be flipped to: "We won't have a country at all to debate such questions unless..."

I urged Tom before his May 5 speech in Denver to load his iPod with "Street Fighting Man" by the Rolling Stones, and make that the campaign theme song from now on. We played some of the song on radio May 6. With apologies to Mick Jagger, here are the adapted lyrics:

Ev'rywhere I hear the sound of marching, charging feet, boy 'Cause summer's here and the time is right for fighting in the street, boy But what can a [border hawk] do Except to [barnstorm Iowa and New Hampshire] 'Cause in sleepy [DC] town There's just no place for a street fighting man No

Hey! Think the time is right for [an immigration] revolution But where I live the game to play is compromise solution Well, then what can a poor boy do Except to [shake up every debate] 'Cause in [sanctuary Denver] town There's no place for a street fighting man No

Hey! Said my name is called disturbance I'll shout and scream, I'll [zing the Prez], I'll rail at all his [allies], Well, what can a poor boy do Except to [gamble for all the marbles] 'Cause in sleepy [amnesty] town There's no place for a street fighting man No

Dems devoid of vision & leadership

By Dave Petteys (dpetteys@comcast.net) Throughout American history, strong leadership has saved the country: Washington at Valley Forge, Lincoln in the dark days of the Civil War. These leaders had a conviction of the right thing to do and stuck to it! But what about present leadership in the Democratic Party?

Representative Pelosi and Senator Reid continually say “The American people have spoken” as their signal to declare defeat in Iraq. They appear to dwell on the short term domestic political aspects, and seem completely unaware of the effect such a step would have on American standing in the world. What would Hugo Chavez, or the leaders of Iran, China, Russia and North Korea think and do if we shamefully abandon Iraq? Would American guarantees to any ally be worth the paper it’s printed on after this?

Evidently, the Democratic Party cannot tell the difference between right and wrong, good or evil: only what’s popular. This is why the Democrats are in such a moral quandary: the vote determines truth! But if you’d voted in the middle ages as to whether the earth was flat or not, what would the vote have been? And if Washington had taken a poll of his miserable troops in Valley Forge, would the American Revolution have succeeded? And do you not get mutually exclusive results relying on a focus group to determine your action? Does not everyone want more government services yet lower taxes? A stronger military but no draft?

The Democratic Party apparently has no vision for America: only polls and focus groups. “And with no vision, the people perish” (Proverbs 29:18).

Newt nails it

By Brian Ochsner (baochsner@aol.com) I agree with Newt Gingrich – it’s important for conservatives to stay in the political battle. But to regain the state and national majorities, every conservative Republican candidate, consultant and campaign manager should watch this video on Iraq by the former Speaker and this video with his analysis of GOP lessons to learn.

And more importantly, act to the letter on his advice (especially Newt’s take on negative campaign ads, which matches mine).

These are the most clear, accurate and realistic explanations for the Democratic landslide in 2006, where the Republican Party and America are today, and what lies ahead in the future. Even with all his personal problems and faults, Newt is still arguably the best historian and most far-sighted visionary in the GOP today. Republicans at all levels of campaigns and elected office will ignore Newt’s wisdom at their own peril.