Washington – Some people say it with flowers. Opponents of illegal immigration are saying it with bricks.
As immigration supporters took to the streets Monday, Colorado congressional staffers were opening “Priority Mail” pouches containing red bricks.
They’re being mailed to members of Congress in a campaign to express support for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and tougher immigration enforcement.
“I don’t think I’ve ever had a brick mailed to me on any other issue,” said Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., whose office has received four bricks.
“It’s better to have them mailed than have them thrown at you,” quipped his spokeswoman, Angela de Rocha.
Allard and his Colorado colleagues said they didn’t get a significant spike in calls or e-mails to their offices Monday. But they did say the day’s events highlight immigration as a crucial issue that needs resolution.
That will be difficult because the House is taking a harder line than the Senate on immigration policy and is showing no signs of backing down.
Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., said Monday’s events were a “clarion call” for “comprehensive” immigration reform that would include a guest-worker program.
“The high level of publicity, I think, will continue to show this is an important national issue that needs to be dealt with,” Salazar said in an interview.
Rep. Diana DeGette, a Denver Democrat, said in a statement: “As the only member of the Colorado delegation to vote against the House bill that makes being or employing an undocumented worker a federal felony, I urge the congressional leadership to reject overheated rhetoric and work with the White House to forge a comprehensive solution.”
But Rep. Tom Tancredo, a Littleton Republican, said that Monday showed how “a day without illegal aliens … would be a boon to the American taxpayer.”
He penned an article for a conservative online journal saying that without illegal immigration, “youth gangs would see their membership drop by 50 percent in many states, and in Phoenix, child-molestation cases would drop by 34 percent.”
“These are realities about how the system is affected by illegal immigration,” Tancredo said later in an interview.
Some lawmakers said the boycotts of work and school could backfire politically. “This type of insubordination … does nothing to advance the cause of legal immigration,” said Rep. Bob Beauprez, an Arvada Republican.
Staff writer Mike Soraghan can be reached at 202-662-8730 or msoraghan@denverpost.com.
