American Morning
Arizona bill: Profiling or common sense?
(CNN) – Latino members of Congress are calling on Arizona's governor to kill a state bill targeting immigration.
The law would make it a crime to be in the country illegally, requiring police to question anyone if there's reason to suspect they're in the U.S. illegally. It would prohibit slowing or blocking traffic when searching for day laborers, make it a crime to give a ride to someone you know to be an illegal immigrant and would fine towns and cities that don't enforce immigration laws.
The controversial bill has already passed Arizona's senate and house, but Gov. Jan Brewer hasn't said if she'll sign it. We were joined on Wednesday's American Morning by Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who supports the bill; and Arizona state Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, who voted against it.
Is immigration the next big debate?
(CNN) – While health care undoubtedly stole the show in Washington yesterday, a call for immigration reform drew tens of thousands of demonstrators to the National Mall.
There are an estimated 11-million illegal immigrants in the U.S. The president has promised to make immigration law a priority, but immigration advocates say time's up. They're planning more rallies and a bill is already taking shape in the Senate.
Frank Sharry has been involved in that process. He's the founder of the advocacy group America's Voice and he joined us on Monday's American Morning.
U.S. census reaching out to immigrants
There's no running water, questionable sanitation, and abject poverty. No, it's not Port-au-Prince, but towns along America's Mexican border, called "colonias," where many are illegal immigrants.
Near Laredo, Texas, the U.S Census Bureau is reaching out, hoping the desperately poor will participate in next year's census. And as our Ed Lavandera found out, many in the "colonias" would rather be counted out, than in.
Hispanic leaders want immigration reform now
President Obama got elected with a huge boost from Latino voters. Now some Hispanic leaders are demanding that the president make good on a campaign pledge to take on the politically charged issue of immigration reform.
Commentary: Immigration debate without true border security is a fraud
[cnn-photo-caption image=http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/04/10/tancredo.art.jpg caption="Tom Tancredo is a former congressman from Colorado."]
Tom Tancredo is a former Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Colorado and founder of the Rocky Mountain Foundation.
There are two main political obstacles to a new amnesty bill in this session of Congress.
First, the White House has other priorities despite the whining from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. If President Obama and Rahm Emanuel were all that committed to a new amnesty bill as a top priority, the National Council of La Raza would not be sending out a newsletter alert asking its followers to bombard the White House, Reid and Pelosi with calls and emails demanding action “Ahora!” - which they did yesterday. The fact is, the economy makes any such proposal “DOA” in Congress without a full-court press by the White House - which is not going to happen—and even then it would be a loser.
Second, Senator McCain managed to secure the Republican nomination only after neutralizing the amnesty issue by telling Republicans—“I've got the message: border security must come first.” If he now supports an amnesty bill while the border fence is incomplete and border security is still years away, he will be universally chastised as a fraud.
The bottom line? Let’s build the fence, a true double fence like we have in San Diego, increase Border Patrol manpower to 25,000, and only then have a national debate about what to do with the 20 million illegal aliens already here. A debate without true border security is a farce and a fraud.
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Tom Tancredo.
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