Keyes addresses Provo rally
In address at Provo rally, he says issue will determine future of U.S.
"This is an issue that one way or another is going to determine the future of this republic," Keyes said at a state Capitol news conference Wednesday. "The American people need to wake up."
Keyes also spoke at a rally in Provo at the same time as the anti-illegal immigration groups Utah Minuteman Project and Federation for American Immigration Reform held a meet-the-candidates forum in Salt Lake.
Keyes said he wasn't in Utah to endorse either 3rd District Congressman Chris Cannon or his challenger, John Jacob, in Tuesday's Republican primary but to educate voters so they could make up their own minds. He also declined to say if he believed either candidate's immigration proposals are workable solutions.
Cannon, who was in Washington, D.C., said in a telephone interview he wasn't worried the event could be seen as a back-door endorsement of Jacob. Cannon said he's worked with Keyes in the past, and if he says he's not taking a position, "he certainly is not taking a position."
"If you are going to solve the problem, you actually have to solve the whole problem," he said. "They are not wrong in that regard. ...
"Having citizen involvement to help enforce the law is good. It's also good to have a law that's clear," he said. "We want a robust migratory process so people can come and leave and know America and love America, and try to build the content of America in other countries."
The Provo rally began with a documentary video sold as a fund-raiser for the National Minuteman Political Action Committee, "Cochise County USA: Cries from the Border." Several people complained to rally organizers about the movie's length.
Jacob, Constitution Party candidate Jim Noorlander and National Minuteman PAC spokeswoman Carmen Mercer spoke before Keyes took the stand two hours after the rally started.
The documentary provided images that showed the porous nature of the U.S. border with Mexico, a situation recently conceded by President Bush.
Keyes zeroed in on Bush for that statement.
"He's in the sixth year of his presidency," Keyes said. "Read between the lines: 'I have not done my job the last six years.' Then (the president) announced, as if we should be enthusiastic about it, 'Now I'm going to do it.' "
Keyes did not endorse Jacob, but he did say voters should question members of Congress who have been there for a decade a more. Cannon is in his 10th year.
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