Newark, NJ Presser Transcript

Statement of the Honorable Tom Tancredo Newark, NJ August 20, 2007

The fact that the Newark, New Jersey is a “sanctuary city” for illegal aliens is now well known. In addition, it has been widely reported that two of the alleged perpetrators of this heinous act, which occurred two weeks ago Saturday resulting in the deaths of three young students and the wounding of a fourth, are in this country illegally. Both have prior arrests on charges ranging from sexual assault on a child to robbery and illegal possession of weapons.

If the alleged assailants are found guilty of these brutal crimes, Newark and its political leadership share a degree of culpability. They have established a sanctuary city policy in violation of federal law, harbored illegal aliens, and their actions have directly contributed to the deaths of three promising young American kids.

I am encouraging the families of the victims to pursue the option of a lawsuit in light of this culpability. Not only are sanctuary cities a moral outrage that restricts the flow of information to and from ICE, they are illegal-violating the plain language of 8 USC 1373.

Mayor Cory Booker and Governor Jon Corzine have apologized to the people of Newark for not having done enough. They are right, they have not. But their apologies are meaningless if they aren’t willing to do their jobs now.

Sanctuary cities are safe havens for all illegal aliens including gang members, drug dealers, rapists, and murderers, further exposing the law-abiding citizens of such cities to greater crime. According to the Center for immigration Studies, a confidential California Department for Justice study found that fifteen years after Los Angeles declared itself a sanctuary city, 60% of LA’s most violent gangs, with membership in the tens of thousands, were illegal aliens. Of all outstanding murder warrants as of 2004 in Los Angeles, 95% are for illegal aliens.

Because the leaders of this city and this state can not find the courage to put the safety of those they were sworn to protect above all else, we now read that a movement was launched last week aimed at increasing the number of sanctuary cities in New Jersey. It is time someone made it clear that sanctuary cities are a travesty of justice and innocent people are paying the price of leaders gone amuck.

As a nation we can no longer permit our cities and communities to thumb their noses at the laws of our land; and we can no longer allow illegal aliens to be above the law. The consequences of this lawlessness are simply too high.

It is time for Congress to pass a law that bans the flow of federal moneys to all sanctuary cities. For years I have offered such amendments to various appropriations bills. This year I was successful in doing so on the Homeland Security Appropriations bill. There will be attempts in the Senate to remove my amendment, and I appeal to all Americans to demand their Senators resist such attempts.

In addition I personally believe there is a possibility that the political leadership of this and other sanctuary cities may be subject to criminal charges for aiding and abetting illegal aliens. Although I have no hope that the Bush administration’s Justice Department would ever pursue an inquiry, I assure you, mine would.

Thirdly, citizens of sanctuary cities need to demand their leaders cease and desist with such policies and in their place implement procedures that would assure that local law enforcement teams work with all other such agencies to assure the rule of law is re-established throughout the land. If their leaders refuse, they must be held accountable not only in the courts but also on Election Day.

It’s time Americans take back their country.

Thank you very much. I will gladly take questions.

Comments

[Darren]

Thanks for posting the transcript. I was unable to see the speech live due to brutal lunch hour traffic in downtonwn Newark. I know Congressman Tancredo will not give up the fight for justice in this case. Keep up the great work.

Tancredo supporter in NJ

[Bobbie McAuliffe]

More kudos to congressman Tancredo. I have so much respect and admiration for this man. He has been out front on the immigration problems in our country for years and not been given nearly enough recognition.

He also supports strongly border security, national sovereignty, FAIR TRADE ( as opposed to free trade ) tax reform, family values and second amendment rights. All of the things that have caused real Republicans to just stop voting the past 8 years.

I beg the media to start giving him fair recognition in their reporting.

[William Barnett]

Citing statistics really explains the IA problem to all kinds of voters. Tom, you are most impressive when calmly annihilating the opposition with supporting facts. Keep doing it. You're dealing with the most important issues in the right way. Facts cited can convince even opponents to support your issues. McCain, Giuliani, and Romney all flip-flopped. The IA problem involves trillions. Your Fair Tax issue does too.
You have explained that it can bring back jobs (worth trillions), and can also temper and throttle our penchant for consuming too much. Fiscal conservatives are in favor of this. Consuming too much and overspending are driving the current crisis on Wall Street.
This incredibly bad mortgage crisis involves more than a few trillion dollars. If we had passed your Fair Tax bill a few years ago, this multi-trillion dollar mortgage credit bubble would have been deflated gradually and early. Basically, we built houses too big and too costly, sold them to people with iffy credit, and tempted too many to rely on variable mortages, with payments rising now by as much as 30%. Watching all stock markets correcting world wide in response to this problem, I have never seen anything like it.
Giuliani is a NYC (the-home-of-most-stock-trades) man. Hillary is NY State. Romney made his fortune dealing in stocks (and bought the IA Straw Poll with about 4.5 million). I don't think any of these opponents support the Fair Tax. And yet, it's obviously the kind of thing that curbs speculation in real estate. Like McCain on IA, they are very vulnerable on this issue. You, your friends, and press supporters, want to get them talking about it. Like McCain, they will make mistakes.
Over decades, the realtors drove real estate returns at about 10 percent per year. This built the bubble. It is apparently much larger than the stock market.
Attempts by Wall Street captured part of the US mortgage industry, and inflated prices even more. We even sold big mortgage consolidating companies to China. Why? Overconfidence, and greed for wild profits won. Huge companies that drove this though are going bankrupt and driving wider failures on Wall Street. Never has the Fair Tax looked better.
Surely the NY money candidates have opinions they can share with us. Right?

[Thomas]

Very well written Congressman. I was very impressed with the way you presented opposition to the practices of the harboring of ILLEGAL CRIMINALS within the City of Newark. I wish that speech would be submitted as an editorial to all major newspapers around the Country.

On another note, I am finding your book "IN MORTAL DANGER" extremely compelling and informative. Thank you for your hard work and contribution to making America a GREAT Nation to live in, free from ILLEGAL CRIMINALS.

Your devotion is extremely appreciated and I hope I can help to continue the fight by running for the U.S. House of Representatives in 2010. But, before I can do that, Congressman Steve King would need to run for U.S. Senate. So, if you can, please talk him into setting his goals higher because he's in my district, as my Congressman, and I won't run against him in a Congressional Election.

Sincerely,

Thomas "Creampuff" Willems
Marcus, Iowa

[Robert]

Tom Tancredo for president!!!!

[John]

The families of the victims must sue the city for failing to protect their children. The mayor, police chief, and county prosecutor should also be held accountable for permitting illegals to roam the city streets killing and raping citizens of Newark and other nearby cities. If these officials are unable to protect their citizens they have an obligation to seek the protection of the governor, his state police, and the national guard.

[mark]

Thanks for being there Tom. I met a couple from Iowa who voted for Romney in the straw poll. They said Tancredo made good points but Romney was "very organized and everyone had neat yellow shirts." They were clueless or in denial to the impact of illegal immigration on the US. I meet too many people like that. They have no idea of Aztlan or La Raza and the imminent threat they pose to US sovereignty. The evidence is all around us but it isn't "correct" to acknowledge it.I'm sending you money and will continue to do so. I'm praying for a miracle that people will wake up and realize Tancredo is for real!!

[MELANIE]

I TOO, BELIEVE IN YOU AND WHAT YOU ARE DOING! I WILL VOTE FOR YOU AS PRESIDENT OF THE U.S.A. GOD BLESS AND KEEP YOU!!! THANK YOU, TOO FOR ALL THAT YOU'VE DONE AND CONTINUE TO DO! YOU HAVE IT ALL RIGHT!!!

[Richard Nix Yantis TX]

Thanks for debating Geraldo. If Geraldo thinks the ILLEGAL immigration problem should die and go away He is living in fantasy land Keep up the fight Congressman Tom and thanks for what you are doing.

[R. Burleigh]

Lots of assertions in this but no references to sources - so how are we to know what's fact and opinion. My mama taught me to verify everin this day and age, but it's the way I was brought up. Will you provide the source for "10's of thousands" of gang members (of any nationality)? What's the source for those "statistics"???

[Bobbie McAuliffe]

Gosh, Burliegh, where do you live? Well, maybe you don't watch news reports on television, but you obviously have a computer. What do you use it for? When I have a question I generally ask professor google. In case you come back here and are not just one of those drive bys, I found this "source" in about 5 seconds

Although once thought to be an inner-city problem, gang violence has spread to communities throughout the United States. At last count, there were more than 24,500 different youth gangs around the country, and more than 772,500 teens and young adults were members of gangs.1 Youth gangs are responsible for much of the serious violence in the United States. In schools and neighborhoods where they are active, they create a climate of fear and increase the amount of violence and criminal behavior.

http://www.safeyouth.org/scripts/teens/gangs.asp

[Dave Fulbright]

People like Tom and myself are being ridiculed by Hilary Clinton and others who would rather see the USA fall from grace than be preserved. I don't get it. How do these traitors get their name on the ballot and be considered "front runners" for the presidency?

Wake up America! Listen to what Tom Tancredo has to say.
Stop listening to corporate funded BS.