Articles about Immigration Town Hall

Here is what is being said about Saturday Night's Town Hall on Illgal Immigration with Congressmen Charles Taylor (R-NC), and Tom Tancredo (R-CO):

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Immigration forum draws crowd
Congressmen want tougher enforcement
by Michael Flynn, MLFLYNN@CITIZEN-TIMES.COM
published September 10, 2006 12:15 am


FLAT ROCK — Highlighting the interest of many mountain residents in immigration issues, more than 200 people gathered at Blue Ridge Community College
on Saturday evening for a two-hour forum on the topic sponsored by U.S. Rep. Charles Taylor, R-Brevard, and featuring U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo, a Colorado Republican.
Marilyn Litewski, 67, of Hendersonville said concerns about illegal immigration led her to attend. “Something has to be done,” she said. “We’re concerned about our borders and security.”
Both congressmen stressed the need to fully enforce immigration laws, whether existing rules or part of any new legislation.
“You have to do something about employers who are willing to hire people who are here illegally,” said Tancredo, an outspoken critic of illegal immigration. “The costs of supporting cheap labor are enormous.”
Chairman of the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus, a mostly Republican group that includes Taylor and has pushed for tougher immigration policies, Tancredo helped pass legislation in the U.S. House that would create criminal sanctions for illegal immigrants and their employers and erect a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico.
Larry Freeman, news director at WHKP-AM radio in Hendersonville, read questions for the congressmen submitted by audience members and callers, the responses to which drew frequent applause.
Addressing a question about different congressional proposals on immigration, Taylor said, “I do not believe in rewarding with citizenship people who have broken the country’s laws.”

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Officials get to 'crux of the matter'
Jennie Jones GilesTimes-News Staff Writer


A crowd of more than 350 people gave overwhelming support to the views of U.S. Reps. Tom Tancredo of Colorado and Charles Taylor of Brevard at an official Congressional public hearing Saturday at Blue Ridge Community College.The Colorado congressman is the sponsor of House Bill 4437, the "Secure Border Bill." The bill passed the House. The Senate has proposed a bill calling for amnesty of many illegal immigrants currently in the country. The two chambers are now in conference.Tancredo, whose grandparents came to the United States in 1894 from Italy, said the law must be applied equally for everyone who wants to come to America."Ethnicity and race are irrelevant," he said. "What message does amnesty send to those waiting to come here in the right way?""All of us are immigrants or descend from immigrants," Taylor said. "Enforcement of the law is the crux of the matter."The congressmen answered written questions from the crowd and from telephone calls on problems stemming from illegal immigration and offered their solutions to those problems."I do not believe in rewarding with citizenship people who broke the country's laws," Taylor said. "The laws must be recognized and enforced. We can't have a dual set of laws in this country. The law will start coming apart, and soon you will have no law at all."

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I haven't seen any one in the local Blogosphere post on the ebvent, save some photos by Tim Peck.

I wasn't able to attend, and I'll do a post about that experience later.

Update: 09.11.2006 Screwy Hoolie has posted an excerpt, with a link to his entire post elsewhere.

I'll bump this post back to the top until about Tuesday, as I become aware of others who are posting their reports. Leave a link in the comments section, or shoot me an email at thunderpig AT yahoo DOT com.