Foreigners Policy

No Sanctuary From Immigration Fight

By Richard Martin, 5-13-05

Feeling to compelled to weigh in on the issue of illegal immigration, Colorado politicians waded into an increasingly fractious debate this week. The flap between Rep. Tom Tancredo, a demagogue of the purest sort, and Denver city officials descended into a “Yes you are�-“No I’m not� squabble on talk radio yesterday, as Tancredo’s charges that Denver police have a “sanctuary� policy for illegal aliens grew more and more shrill.

In Washington, meanwhile, Sen. Ken Salazar announced his support for a bipartisan bill (co-authored by Sens. John McCain and Edward Kennedy) that “would allow most of the illegal immigrants now in the country to apply for a six-year visa after they went through a criminal background check,� Pueblo Chieftain D.C. reporter Joe Hanel reported.

The McCain-Kennedy bill is a common-sense response to the facts on the ground: there are several million illegal immigrants in this country at any given time, and wishing them away – because of ideology, racism, or homeland-security fears – will not make them disappear. Tancredo, who happens to be the leader of the “Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus,� thinks otherwise, of course. "[Bush] doesn't want to call it amnesty,� the Littleton Congressman told Hanel. “McCain doesn't want to call it amnesty. But the rest of the world calls it amnesty, because it is, and therefore to me, it is unacceptable."

There’s a backdrop to this debate, and it involves a return to immigration policies that hark back to the early 1950s, the days of McCarthyism and the McCarran-Walter act, which barred foreigners with unpopular ideas – i.e. Communists – from entering the U.S. David Cole, a Georgetown law professor, the most articulate voice against the shriveling of civil liberties in the aftermath of 9/11, and an old friend and college classmate of mine, wrote a piece for Slate earlier this week that starkly revealed the new entry barriers: “An attachment to a bill that supplements funds for Iraq, passed by Congress and now on the president's desk, would allow the United States once again to keep out and to deport foreign nationals not for their conduct, but for their politics—their ideas, their speech, and the groups with which they associate.�

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