Mexican Consul General Fails To Appear at Immigration Hearing After Pantano Challenge

Pantano’s Opponent Sen. Rouzer Also Declines Pantano’s Challenge To Attend, Holds Country Club Fundraiser Instead 

Raleigh, NC: Today, Author, Businessman, Marine Veteran of two wars, and Conservative Republican Candidate for U.S. Congress Ilario Pantano attended the fourth straight meeting of the Committee on the State’s Role in Immigration Policy.

The Mexican Consul General, after being called out by Pantano last week, changed his mind in the 11^th hour and failed to appear. However, the event was swarmed with over 100 illegal aliens and their sympathizers.  And, because of this overcrowding, Pantano was not allowed to give testimony, though five self-identified illegals were.

Pantano observed: “This is precisely the problem in America today. The voice of lawful American citizens is being drowned out by radical special interest groups. That is unacceptable.”

Pantano’s closest competitor for the 7^th district seat, State Senator David Rouzer, failed yet again to attend the newly created Committee’s meeting designed to inform the public on the costs of illegal immigration to North Carolina – estimated at $2.1 billion per year. 

Rouzer has refused to attend any of the Committee’s meetings, despite having been paid thousands of dollars to lobby for the amnesty-granting AgJobs Act of 2007, introduced by Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and cosponsored by a collection of the most liberal Democrats in the U.S. Senate, including then Senators Barack Obama (D-IL), Hillary Clinton (D-NY), and Joe Biden (D-DE); and Senators John Kerry (D-MA), and Chuck Schumer (D-NY).  The AgJobs Act – dubbed “immigration amnesty revived” and “stealth amnesty” by the conservative Heritage Foundation – would have granted amnesty to 3.3 million illegal immigrants, including those that have committed crimes. Predictably, not a single North Carolina Republican supported the bill. 

“I find it astounding” said Pantano “that someone who has been paid thousands of dollars to lobby for amnesty for illegal aliens would refuse to take a couple of hours out of his day to attend any of the meetings of this very important NC General Assembly panel. And as an elected official, he has a duty to his constituents to learn of the costs of the policies he is advocating. Instead he chose to hold a fundraiser at a country club.”