January 06, 2015 03:37 PM UTC

Buck: "I don't owe people who are here illegally anything"

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• by: Jason Salzman

(Promoted by Colorado Pols)

"I don't owe people who are here illegally anything."

That's Republican Rep. Ken Buck, making us proud just hours before he was sworn in today as a U.S. Representative from Colorado.

One wonders if Buck would have said the same thing about my interred illegal immigrant Italian inlaws (IIIII), but it doesn't matter because Buck is in Washington now, not a hundred years ago.

Buck told The Denver Post's Mark Matthews that he wants to establish a guest-worker program for immigrants and then move on, piecemeal, to deal with the 11 million undocumented immigrants already in our country.

But how will he do this for people to whom he owes nothing?

Does Buck feel he owes undocumented human beings no respect? No compassion, not even some level of honor for the work they do in our country–and for the contributions they make to our communities? Apparently not. Nada.

How about a vaccination or two for the undocumented kids? Does Buck owe them that?

Owing nothing to the undocumented people in Colorado amounts to hating them. What else to call it?

Maybe I'm skewed from too much talk radio, but the hate toward immigrants from respectable people in Colorado, like Buck and State Sen. Vicki Marble (who said they spread "the disease"), seems to be on the rise.

Yet, I don't see reporters noticing. Marble's ugly comment stunk up my blog post and went nowhere else. Buck's line was at least reported, which counts for something, but was left hanging. Ugh.