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Tancredo: New Law Would Shelter Terrorists
A new law that exempts religious groups from prosecution if they employ illegal immigrants as volunteers protects potential terrorists, says Colorado GOP Congressman Tom Tancredo. Tancredo vows he'll work to repeal the legislation. "This provision opens a hole in our immigration system so big, a terrorist could drive a truck bomb through it," said Tancredo, a vehement critic of illegal immigration, in a statement reported by the Denver Post. "Terrorists in the United States have used religious organizations as fronts before," he said. "This provides legal cover for any church, synagogue, mosque or group that calls itself a religion to aid and abet illegals who may pose a national security threat."
Story Continues Below The new law - authored by Sen. Robert Bennett (R-Utah) - shields religious groups from a federal law, which prohibits knowingly transporting, concealing, harboring or shielding an illegal immigrant. Under Bennett's legislation the law no longer applies to religious groups if illegal immigrants are volunteering to serve in a religious activity, such as working as missionaries or in a soup kitchen. "It does not under any circumstances allow a terrorist or any illegal alien any kind of special sanctuary," Bennett told the Post, adding that church volunteers who are illegal immigrants could still face legal action. According to the Post, Bennett wrote the provision at the request of attorneys for the Mormon Church, which - according to Bennett - uses the largest number of volunteers of any U.S. religious group. A spokesman for the church, Michael Purdy, told the Post the law would allow illegal immigrants to serve as Mormon missionaries, which they previously could not do. "This narrow exception to the immigration act allows people of all faiths to fulfill their religious obligations," Purdy said.
Asked if a church might be protected if it housed illegal immigrants, he said, "No, I don't think so." He said the law does not protect religious groups acting as fronts for terrorists. But Tancredo's spokesman, Will Adams, said that while Bennett might intend for the law to apply only to soup kitchen volunteers or missionaries, it would give shelter to those working with terrorists. Adams explained that while the Department of Justice in the past could charge a religious group with immigration violations while investigating alleged terrorist activities, under the new law it could no longer do so. He added that a large number of terrorism cases are first brought as immigration violations and that religious groups have been charged with sheltering terrorists in the past. Editor's note:
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