Does Gov. Owens Support Rep. Tancredo's anti-immigration/anti-Bush policy?

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Press Contact: Michelle Dally, 303-356-2532
FEBRUARY 3, 2005

Colorado Department of Education Vice-Chairman asks:
Does Gov. Owens Support Rep. Tancredo’s anti-immigration/anti-Bush policy?

The same week that Rep. Tom Tancredo took his anti-immigration pledge on the road to New Hampshire, Governor Owens played lackey to Rep. Tom Tancredo, jumping to action when Rep. Tancredo demanded that a guide for immigrants be taken off the Colorado Department of Education’s website. The Congressman demanded, and Gov. Owens did as he was told.1

Coloradans, including Jared Polis, Vice-Chairman of the Colorado State Board of Education found the Governor’s action unwarranted. “Governor Owens’ action furthering Congressman Tancredo’s far right agenda was completely inappropriate,” stated Polis. “Tancredo’s hateful venom is now affecting his Republican colleagues,” Polis added.

Michael Huttner, Executive Director of ProgressNow.Org , said because of the Governor’s actions concerning the website, Owens needs to clarify his stand: “Does Governor Bill Owens join Rep. Tancredo in his extremist views on closing American borders and using the military to enforce that closure? Does Gov. Owens support Rep. Tancredo’s racist, anti-immigrant agenda? Does Gov. Owens really believe that Latino and other immigrants are ‘coming across our borders to kill you and your children.’”2

Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO) is in New Hampshire today and tomorrow in an effort he describes as trying to “make [anti] immigration the #1 issue in the 2008 presidential race”. Rep. Tancredo is asking N.E. Republicans to “enlist our friends in New Hampshire to put direct pressure on their U.S. Senators and Representatives to oppose President Bush’s dreadful ‘guest worker’. . . proposal for illegal immigrants.”

ProgressNow.Org Executive Director Michael Huttner calls for the Governor and the rest of Colorado Republicans to make their positions clear: Either they disavow Tancredo and what the Wall Street Journal Editorial board called his “exploit[ation of] the terror attacks to advance [his] anti-immigration agenda….”3 or their silence stands as tacit approval of Tancredo’s extremist views.

“Governor Owens and the rest of Tancredo’s Republican colleagues, Sen Allard and Reps Beauprez, Helfley and Musgrave, can no longer just stand by and pretend they don’t know anything about Rep. Tom Tancredo’s racist political agenda. Not after Owens jumped to change a Colorado state website because of Tancredo’s demands. Either Owens disavows Tancredo’s views, or the message is clear: Governor Owens thinks it is fine to, as the Greeley Tribune put it: ‘give[s] credibility to bigotry toward immigrants in the United States – legal or illegal.’”4

ProgressNow.Org is a national, nonpartisan 501©(3) organization devoted to giving a strong, credible voice to progressive issues. Our offices are located at 1536 Wynkoop Street, Denver Colorado. Executive Director: Michael Huttner – 303-931-4547.

1 See the story in the Washington Times, February 1, 2005
2 Tancredo quoted in the Atlanta Journal Constitution 2/03/04
3 Wall Street Journal Editorial 3/18/02
4 Greeley Tribune Editorial 2/18/04