We Get E-Mail
November 1, 2001
Representative Tom Tancredo
U.S. House of RepresentativesDear Tom,
Thank you for your tireless efforts at reforming immigration through your ongoing work and as founder of the House Immigration Reform Caucus. There must be something special about Colorado that it has produced yet another great visionary, like Dick Lamm, who sees with such acuity the developing tragedy of U.S. immigration policy.
I am especially grateful that you, as a Republican, are sensitive to the population/environmental consequences of such unsustainable immigration induced population growth. As such, your efforts, if successful, will accomplish more towards preserving wilderness and habitat, reducing toxic emissions and solid waste, and preserving the accessibility of wild places than decades of work by groups like the Sierra Club that have been coopted by the politically correct, air-headed environmentalists one sees today. Indeed the position of groups like the Sierra Club has perhaps done net harm to the environment as they are mistakenly perceived among many lawmakers in Washington as a proxy for the entire environmental movement. This despite overwhelming evidence of the accumulating detrimental impact of decades of immigration induced population growth.
Of course recent terrorists attacks have imparted an entirely new dimension and sense of urgency to immigration reform. It is so obvious that efforts to defend our nation must begin at the border. Mohammed Atta I understand left and reentered the U.S. twice on invalid visas so confident was he in the ineffectiveness of our border controls! And yet, because immigration has remained proscribed and sacrosanct for so long, Congress continues to focus on dealing with the consequences of porous borders and unsustainable immigration, as if they were a given, rather than address the root cause. Unfortunately, this also happens to be the same approach of many "environmentalists" to the consequences of our reckless immigration policy.
In conclusion, your efforts are heroic. Keep up the good fight!
Best regards,
David B.
P.S. Perhaps you could make a special appeal to my congressman, Mark Kirk, for support. I visited him shortly before the September 11 attacks with a group of local environmentalists including the founder of Illinois' open space district movement, Libertyville Township Supervisor, Mike Graham, whose efforts he applauded at a town hall meeting devoted to preserving open space last June. At that meeting we shared the Gaylord Neslon/Roy Beck video tape with Mark, the graphical portion of which he commented he observed you present in the House. He seemed to recognize the collision course we're on, and I believe he is a strong potential ally, especially in the wake of September 11.