Wednesday, September 28, 2005
kolbe panders to the right with floor amendment
Perhaps anticipating his tough nomination battle next year, AZ08's own Jim Kolbe has just sponsored a floor amendment to the Justice Department Appropriations bill currently on the floor in the House.
Kolbe's amendment would:
In other words, lock 'em up and throw away the key!
That's a minor exaggeration, but the point is that Kolbe is just throwing money at the problem instead of looking at the root causes of illegal immigration. And if he really wanted to help the states on illegal immigration issues by spending money, the dough could be better spent going to hospitals and other facilities that do face a very real financial hardships because they are treating undocumented, uninsured and underpaid immigrants.
This is typical conservative retribution politics, the idea that if you lock enough people up, the crimes they have committed will just go away.
I have no doubt this will play well in Cochise County during the primaries, a place that Kolbe lost to Randy Graf by wide margins in the 2004 primary cycle. It looks like Kolbe will be facing an even tougher primary challenge from Graf this year, which might explain this exercise in futility.
The amendment was, not surprisingly, agreed to en gross with a number of other pending amendments to the bill.
Kolbe's amendment would:
...reauthorize the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP) through FY2011 and would increase authorized funding to $750 million for FY06, $850 million for FY07, and $950 million for FY08-11; specifies that funds "may be used only for correctional purposes." Amendment also requires the Department of Justice Inspector General submit a report on the state and local governments that receive SCAAP funding and whether they are cooperating with efforts to deport criminal aliens, whether they have policies in violation of current law, and in the case of illegal aliens released without being referred to the Department of Homeland Security, the number of subsequent offense committed and how many of these aliens were released because the state or local governments lack space or funds to detain them.
In other words, lock 'em up and throw away the key!
That's a minor exaggeration, but the point is that Kolbe is just throwing money at the problem instead of looking at the root causes of illegal immigration. And if he really wanted to help the states on illegal immigration issues by spending money, the dough could be better spent going to hospitals and other facilities that do face a very real financial hardships because they are treating undocumented, uninsured and underpaid immigrants.
This is typical conservative retribution politics, the idea that if you lock enough people up, the crimes they have committed will just go away.
I have no doubt this will play well in Cochise County during the primaries, a place that Kolbe lost to Randy Graf by wide margins in the 2004 primary cycle. It looks like Kolbe will be facing an even tougher primary challenge from Graf this year, which might explain this exercise in futility.
The amendment was, not surprisingly, agreed to en gross with a number of other pending amendments to the bill.
