- 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."
-
- http://www.insidedenver.com/drmn/politics/article/0,1299,DRMN_35_1486779,00.html
|