Tancredo Says Bush's Amnesty Bill Shall Not Pass
by Chad Groening
February 18, 2004
(AgapePress) - The chairman of the House Immigration Reform Caucus says he has enough votes to stop President Bush's "guest worker" proposal in Congress.Colorado Republican Tom Tancredo says he is poised for a fight if the Senate sends the House a so-called guest worker bill. Although President Bush has been pushing for such legislation, Tancredo says he has enough votes to stop it.
The congressman can well believe that the U.S. Senate has no desire to waylay the bill that would give what amounts to amnesty to millions of illegal aliens. He says for the most part the senators have, with the possible exceptions of Jeff Sessions and Jon Kyl, proven to be "wimps" on the issue. "There's absolutely no guts over there," Tancredo says, "but we're going to put up a fight in the House that will make the fight on the Medicare thing look tame if they try it."
Tancredo avers that House supporters of the guest worker plan will fail. "They're not going to get an amnesty bill through unless they want to put every single chip they've got on the table again," he says, "and I don't think they want to do it. They spent everything they could spend, breaking arms to get Republicans to vote for that lousy piece of legislation called 'Medicare/Prescription Drug Bill.' I don't think they want to do this again."
Tancredo doubts that the leaders pushing for a guest worker bill are anxious to wrangle with him over its passage. "I don't think they want another big battle on this issue," he says, "because I guarantee you, I will make this the biggest hassle they ever saw, and I just don't think they want it in an election year. But if they do, so be it. We'll fight it."
Still, Tancredo has concerns that House supporters of the bill might engage in political trickery to get the legislation passed. "What worries me is that they'll try to sneak it through on an appropriations bill," the Colorado representative says. "They'll put it on a benign bill going out of the House; it will go over to the Senate, where McCain will get hold of it and turn it into an amnesty bill, and [it could] come back as a conference."
The congressman says in this way the guest worker legislation could crop up again and present a problem. "It's harder to stop a conference report," he notes.
A recent Zogby poll showed that 74 percent of the American people oppose amnesty for illegal aliens and agree with Tancredo that America should not be giving aid to illegal workers.
