By Chad Groening
July 1, 2003

(AgapePress) - A Colorado congressman finds it unbelievable that more than 300 of his colleagues could vote "no" on an amendment that would have put teeth into a federal immigration law.

Tom Tancredo, chairman of the House Immigration Reform Caucus, sponsored the amendment that would have denied money to so-called sanctuary cities that have passed ordinances freeing law enforcement officials from reporting illegal immigrants. The Colorado Republican said the amendment really made a lot of sense.

"I introduced an amendment that says, 'OK, if your city continues to break the law that we already have on the books, then it cannot apply for a grant from the Homeland Security Board or any of the various thing that that organization makes grants for,'" Tancredo said. "That's all I said. That, in and of itself, is a very moderate punishment and that failed."

Tancredo said he really doesn't know how anybody could justify voting against his amendment. He said if local law enforcement agencies don't report illegal aliens, they run the risk of allowing terrorists to remain at large, with potential catastrophic consequences.

"Of the nineteen terrorists that were involved in 9/11, at least two of them had been picked up at one time or another," he said. "[They were picked up on] relatively minor charges -- but they had been picked up. And because they were picked up on something, that automatically tells you that there is a problem and some of those people could have been here illegally or overstayed their visas and they would have been deported."

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