Legislator Takes Cong. Flake to Task on 'Amnesty'

By Dennis Durband, Editor
April 18, 2004

Cong. Jeff Flake (R-D6) has only appeared at Legislative District 22 meetings a couple times in the past few years, and it's no wonder why. The East Valley is hostile territory for anyone supporting guest worker legislation. Upon Flake's most recent visit, he was taken to task by Eddie Farnsworth, Majority Leader in the Arizona House of Representatives, for the guest worker bill he is co-sponsoring along with Sen. John McCain and Cong. Jim Kolbe.

Often accused of sponsoring amnesty for illegal aliens, Flake said he opposes amnesty and he denied that his bill is amnesty.

"If an amnesty bill comes across my desk, I will vote against it," Flake said Thursday. "What we have today is a de facto amnesty. You might as well buy a burial plot when you come here. The border still leaks like a sieve. It's tough to get across the border, and they only want to do it once. They are bringing their families with them. Anyone who just says seal the border hasn't flown the border. Forty percent of the illegals entered the country legally and overstayed. Right now, smugglers know they can go through Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. Some say let's enforce the law. It's not going to happen. We don't have a law we can enforce today. We need a law that can be enforced. I've always opposed amnesty and always will."

Farnsworth followed Flake to the podium and disputed the congressman's remarks.

"I have to tell you I disagree with the congressman 100 percent on immigration policy," said Farnsworth (R-D22). In the back of the room, Flake folded his arms and grinned. "There are things that can be done," Farnsworth continued. "If we don't seal the borders, anyone can come through illegally. We need to have a way to track them. Congress needs to track them better. I respectfully disagree with the congressman. He is dead wrong. We will continue to see erosion in our state. The cost will be between $600 million and $1 billion in education money spent on illegals. This is a major problem the congressman continues to ignore. His program doesn't come close to solving it. I'm sick of sitting in a room for eight hours a day paying the cost of illegals' problems. We can seal the border and defend our sovereignty. Charging them $1,500 and sending them to the back of the line is amnesty. I call on Congress and the president to seal the border and do a better job of border control."

A Gilbert resident, Darryl Colvin, asked Cong. Flake if he supports the Protect Arizona Now (PAN) initiative and if he has ever employed illegal aliens.

"No, I do not," Flake responded in opposition to PAN. "Oh, yes, (I employed illegals) when it was not illegal. A proposition in California killed the (Republican) party for decades. There is so little you accomplish with PAN, and you put the state officials in the position of being liable of being made immigration officials. We need the federal government to act. We won't control the border until we recognize that we need a guest worker program."

Farnsworth took exception to the liability remark: "On the issue of liability, they have liability in everything they do," Farnsworth said of state employees.

A member of the audience told Farnsworth that if Iraq was where Mexico is, the border problem would be solved.

Flake's Comments on Other Topics

The war in Iraq: "The biggest issue right now is the war. I went to Iraq a month ago. I was in Basra and Baghdad. It's a harrowing experience flying into Baghdad. Our plane deployed flares because we detected something locking on to it. We landed from height and took off low. We carried the body of a dead solider back. It was like a bad Disney Land ride. I ran into a dozen soldiers, several from Arizona. It was a great experience to see them. They are doing a fabulous job under trying conditions. We have to stay the course. We can't afford to pull out. It's going to be a tough go."

Transportation bill: "We passed the week before last the ugliest piece of legislation I have ever seen in Congress, the highway bill. A transportation bill is done every six years, and Arizona traditionally does very poorly with it. Arizona is a donor state because it gives more than it gets back from the transportation bill. The bill is full of earmarks and pork. We get the value of 60 cents for every dollar we supply, and we're supposed to be happy with it. Four of the 65 dissenting votes came from Arizona congressmen. It means another six years of Arizona getting shafted. In 1982, there were 10 earmarks in the transportation bill. This year, there were more than 3,200 earmarks. We need to stop the earmarking process. My amendment to the bill got 60 votes. The chairman threatened those voting for amendments to lose their earmarks. I spoke on the floor of the House and said, 'Please, Mr. President, veto this bill.'"

Clean Elections are the main reason we have a Democratic governor. She (Gov. Janet Napolitano) outspent (2002 Republican candidate) Matt Salmon, 2-1. I've raised money for it (the voter initiative to repeal the Clean Elections Act). We have 240,000 signatures and we only needed 180,000. It doesn't end Clean Elections, but takes all the money away from it. It's going extremely well.

State Rep. Andy Biggs (R-D22) asked Flake if the birth/citizenship law can be changed: "Bob Stump introduced that bill for 20 years, and it got nowhere. I don't see it happening," Flake responded.

A news release issued Friday by Cong. Flake's office said that he has raised $173,000 for his re-election bid, compared to $47,000 reported by his Republican primary challenger, Stan Barnes.