February 24, 2003

Chris Cannon And The Betrayal Of Utah

By Joe Guzzardi

Here’s a heads up to my Utah friends from a California guy who knows the score on immigration.

Your leaders, Governor Mike Leavitt, Senator Orrin Hatch and Representative Chris Cannon are selling you down the river Styx.

And while they have gone loco in the coco over Mexico and all things Mexican, you’re whistling past the graveyard.

According to Ken Thomson, a former Utah Republican Delegate and current Executive Director of Utahns for Immigration Reform, “The people in Utah consider immigration a California problem.”

In 1988, when I moved back to California from Seattle, I saw that immigration had completely changed the Golden State. The California that I grew up in and loved was gone. And through my job at the Lodi Adult School, I could see that greater erosion for California was certain.

I called friends in North Carolina, Georgia and New Jersey to tell them about what immigration had done to California.

“That’s your problem,” they replied. “We’re okay here.”

I told them it was only a matter of time. Now, fifteen years later, they wish they had listened.

If Utah doesn’t wise up, it will be in the tank right next to California.

Earlier this month, Governor Leavitt visited Mexican President Vicente Fox at Fox’s Los Pinos compound. And here’s what Leavitt told Fox about issues of crucial importance to Mexico:

After meeting with Leavitt, Fox told the Salt Lake Tribune,

“This kind of visit, like the one done by the governor, is the best way to work together, building a future for both [the United States and Mexico]."[ Mexico's Fox, Leavitt Huddle By Tim Sullivan, The Salt Lake Tribune, February 4, 2003]

But what Utah gets out of this—except the bill and the additional immigration that will certainly follow—is exactly zip.

Let’s look more closely at Chris Cannon. Of all of the two-faced oddballs that are constantly pumping for more, more and still more freebees for illegal immigrants, he must be on the top of the list.

Even by the abysmally low standards set by politicians, Cannon has astonishing cheek. He can look you in the eye and lie to you. And Cannon’s lies are even bolder since he knows that you know that he is lying.

At David Horowitz’s 2002 Restoration Weekend, Cannon told Michelle Malkin that he is completely opposed to illegal immigration. But only a few months earlier at the MALDEF Excellence in Leadership award ceremony, of all places, Cannon said:

“We love immigrants in Utah. And we don’t often times make the distinction between legal and illegal. In fact, I think Utah was the first state in the country to legislate the ability to get a driver’s license based on the matricula consular card and of that I am proud.”

You heard him - “Proud!”

And, according to Cannon, legal and illegal are the same? That would be distressing news to his Brigham Young University law professors.

Cannon seemed to have a very clear idea of legal vs. illegal when he was a Trial Manager for the Republicans in the impeachment proceedings against President Bill Clinton in 1999.

In his opening statement, Cannon quoted John Locke (no less) about the law: “Wherever law ends, tyranny begins.”

Then Cannon, in his next breath, recalled the words of Teddy Roosevelt:

“No man is above the law and no man is below it.”

Cannon argued passionately about the illegalities of obstruction of justice and cited chapter and verse from the Articles of Impeachment.

But only a few years later, Cannon seemingly can’t get a handle on the difference between someone who is legally in the U.S. and someone who is not.

The Clinton trial was not the only time Cannon huffed and puffed for the enforcement of the nation’s laws. Two years later, on September 20, 2001 Cannon was on his soapbox in front of the International Trade Commission railing against the perils of “dumping” foreign steel in the U.S.

Since Cannon and his brother Joe were the owners of the now defunct Geneva Steel Company, his speech was even more self-serving than his diatribe against Clinton.

Said Cannon:

“…illegal trade practices of foreign countries” [jeopardize the future of U.S. steel mills;] “…foreign steel companies and the governments that support them must observe the law….”

Cannon’s testimony ago takes on a special significance when read in light of his support of guest worker/amnesty programs.

According to Capitol Hill insiders, Cannon and Senators Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) and Larry Craig (R-ID) are itching to introduce such legislation this year.

U.S. workers be damned!

But when the future of Cannon’s Geneva Steel was threatened by foreign competition, he stressed how hurtful illegal practices are:

“It is not just American companies that are adversely affected by these illegal actions, American families are hurting the most. I have personally witnessed the harm caused to steel workers and their families after losing their jobs. These families are suffering tremendously, struggling to buy food and pay bills.”

I wonder if pandering to Mexican lobbyists has anything to do with Cannon’s change of heart?

Utahns, you have your hands full with Leavitt/Hatch/Cannon.

And the news gets worse. Fox has sized you up as a patsy. He’ll soon be sending a contingent of “migratory specialists” to Utah.

Sew up your pockets. And don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Joe Guzzardi [email him], an instructor in English at the Lodi Adult School, has been writing a weekly newspaper column since 1988. This column is exclusive to VDARE.COM.