Tom Tancredo

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Tom Tancredo

Thomas Gerard "Tom" Tancredo (born December 20 1945) is an American politician from the Republican Party. He has been a member of the United States House of Representatives since 1999, representing the 6th Congressional District of Colorado. ([map]). The district takes in most of Denver's southern suburbs. He has gained national attention for his strong stance against illegal immigration, and he has expressed interest to seek the 2008 Republican Nomination for President.

Contents

1 Early life and political career
2 Immigration issues
3 Conservative Political Action Conference
4 2006 election campaign
5 Books
6 External links

Early life and political career

Tancredo was born in Denver, Colorado. He graduated from the University of Northern Colorado with a degree in political science.

In 1976, while teaching history at Drake Junior High School in Denver, he ran for a seat in the Colorado House of Representatives and won. He served two terms, and was one of the leaders of a group of conservative legislators referred to as "House crazies" by Democratic Governor Dick Lamm. Despite that comment, Lamm now shares Tancredo's passionate interest in immigration matters, and has frequently appeared with Tancredo to speak against current illegal immigration policy.

After Ronald Reagan was elected president in 1981, he appointed Tancredo as Denver regional representative for the Department of Education. He stayed on through the first Bush administration, paring the office's staff to 60 employees, down from 225 when he arrived. In 1993, he became president of the Independence Institute, a conservative think tank based in Golden, Colorado, serving there until his election to Congress. He was also a leader in the Colorado term limits movement.

In 1998, Dan Schaefer decided not to run for a seventh full term in the 6th District. Running on a promise to serve only three terms in Congress, Tancredo narrowly won the five-way Republican primary and went on to victory in November. He is only the second person to represent the 6th District since its creation in 1983 (former astronaut Jack Swigert was elected as the district's first congressman in 1982, but died before taking office).

Tancredo immediately attracted controversy when he refused to attend a White House party for newly elected Congressmen, saying that Bill Clinton was not "a real President." Four months into his term, the Columbine High School shooting occurred less than a mile from Tancredo's home in Littleton. He received considerable criticism for taking money from groups opposed to gun control and only took 53% of the vote in 2000, the lowest voting percentage in the district's history. However, with less opposition in subsequent elections, he was reelected in 2002 and 2004. Prior to the 2004 election, he announced that he would break his pledge and run for a fourth term in 2006 because the issue of illegal immigration required his continuing presence in Congress.

During much of the 108th Congress, Tancredo's major focus besides immigration was his opposition to ethnic and race-based caucuses in the House. However, a proposal to eliminate House recognition for them did not gain support.

He endorses the Genocide Intervention Network and has been active in pushing for the United States to increase its involvement in the Darfur conflict.

He is a co-sponsor of Ron Paul's bill, calling on the United States to withdraw from UNESCO.

Immigration issues

Tancredo is noted for his very outspoken criticism of Bush's border control efforts and illegal immigration, and his support for general immigration reduction. His supporters claim he represents the silent majority of American citizens who want existing U.S. laws upheld. Despite Tancredo's non-English speaking, non-Protestant Italian ancestry, his critics claim he is xenophobic and that his proposed measures do not address underlying causes. He has received press attention for highlighting individual illegal immigrant families for deportation, such as that of an honor student trying to gain admission to the University of Colorado at Boulder, who had publicly complained about having to pay out-of-state tuition rates because he was illegally in the country. Tancredo also received negative publicity when the Devner Post reported that two illegal aliens were among the crew hired to remodel the congressman's basement. Tancredo defended himself by saying that he never asked about their immigration status. [link][link]

In May 1999, Tancredo founded the House Immigration Reform Caucus. He still serves as its chairman. The caucus, made up mostly of Republicans, focuses on reviewing immigration policy but has not yet been successful in implementing significant reforms.

His outspoken advocacy for what he terms immigration reform, particularly since his criticizing of George W. Bush's border security controls, has made him a persona non grata in the White House. Tancredo and Bush's political advisor, Karl Rove, got into a "screaming match" after Tancredo claimed that "if the nation suffered another attack at the hands of terrorists able to skirt immigration laws, the blood of the people killed" would be on the president’s and Congress’s hands. Rove responded by calling the congressman "a traitor to the party," "a traitor to the president," and warned him to never "darken the doorstep of the White House." Tancredo responded that "the president’s position on immigration is going to hurt [him]. I want the president to win [the 2004 election]. I am not doing any of these things or saying any of these things because I want to hurt the Republican Party or the president."[link] National Review's David Frum wrote that "[n]o issue, not one, threatens to do more damage to the Republican coalition than immigration," [link] which many say explains in part Rove's sensitivity to Tancredo's criticism.

Tancredo said he intends to visit New Hampshire, and Iowa, in order to get a leader in the White House who “understands the threat illegal immigrants pose to the country's security.” Federal prisons, he said, overflow with illegal immigrants, some of whom aim to harm people. Tancredo has said, "[t]hey need to be found before it is too late. They're coming here to kill you, and you, and me, and my grandchildren."[link]

Once, according to The New Republic, "[w]hen The Denver Post profiled an illegal immigrant high school student with a 3.9 grade point average, Tancredo tried to have the boy deported,"[link] as well as his family. The New Republic article also quotes Tancredo saying that keeping immigrants out of the United States is a question of national identity and accusing his opponents of nihilistic cultural relativism and anti-Americanism:

America is wrestling with an identity crisis. Part of it is a result of what I call the 'cult of multiculturalism.' The idea that there is nothing — nothing — of value in Western civilization, that we have nothing to offer the world, that we have nothing to offer as a viable society, that everything we have is bad and ugly.... If we are truly in a clash of civilizations... which I happen to believe, then it is important for us to understand who we are. What does it mean to be part of Western civilization? Are there inherent values that are worth anyone's allegiance?

The most significant immigration-related legislation that Tancredo has worked to pass is H.R. 946, The Mass Immigration Reduction Act of 2003. The act would have imposed an indefinite moratorium on immigration to the United States. Only 30,000 total legal immigrants would have been allowed into the country annually for at least the first 5 years of the act and, after that, until such time as there were fewer than 10,000 illegal immigrants entering per year. When those conditions were met immigration would only have been allowed at whatever level the president and both houses of Congress agreed would have no adverse impact on wages, housing, the environment, or schools. When last introduced in 2003, the bill had 11 cosponsors. Organizations that have endorsed Tancredo's bill include: NumbersUSA, Population-Environment Balance, Carrying Capacity Network, Federation for American Immigration Reform, Negative Population Growth, and the American Patrol.

Tancredo founded the Team America political action committee in order to collect contributions for immigration-restrictionist inclined congressional representatives and candidates. Due to campaign law he had to resign after founding it. The current chair is Angela "Bay" Buchanan, sister of politician Pat Buchanan.

In February 2005, Tancredo announced he will seek the Republican nomination for president if all other candidates fail to address the illegal immigration problem. He is already visiting early primary states like New Hampshire. In July 2005, Tancredo confirmed that he was moving towards a presidential run.[link] It is widely believed that the illegal immmigration issue is the most important one for conservatives, making him a dark horse candidate.

In July 2005, in a press release from his congressional office, Tancredo responded to Zhu Chenghu's statement advocating the use of nuclear weapons against the United States. Tancredo stated "For a senior government official to exhibit such tremendous stupidity by making such a brazen threat is hardly characteristic of a modern nation" and demanded an immediate apology from the Chinese government([link]). The same day, during a radio interview on Orlando talk-radio station AM 540 WFLA, Tancredo responded to a question asking about a potential U.S. response to a nuclear attack on U.S. cities by al-Qaeda by saying that one response would be to retaliate by "taking out" Muslim holy sites (specifically, Mecca) if it were clearly proven that Islamic terrorists were behind such an attack [link][link] Days later, in an interview on CNN together with James Zogby, Tancredo claimed he meant the comment as merely a threat to retaliate and refused to apologize.

In a March 29, 2006 interview on Fox News Channel's "The Big Story With John Gibson" Tancredo responded to a question about immigrant rights protesters also being voters by saying:

Well, unfortunately, there's a lot of voters. Most of them are voting illegally. They are fraudulent voters. We have too many illegal aliens that are allowed to vote. ^{[[Citing sources citation needed]]}

Conservative Political Action Conference

On February 9, 2006, Tancredo addressed the Conservative Political Action Conference. In a poll of the largely collegiate group, 5% predicted that Tancredo would be the 2008 nominee. His supporters cheered him on and waved signs.[link]

“It is the President who is out of step with his party, not Tom Tancredo,” the Colorado Republican said of himself to a standing ovation at 33rd annual gathering of conservatives.

Tancredo then took on the Bush guest-worker plan and said:

It is the employer community which sees profits from cheap labor, and the hell with the (impact on) the American taxpayer. The conservative movement can either be the voice of principle ... or it can be the voice of the Chamber of Commerce, but it cannot be both.

"The American people don't understand what Republicans stand for anymore," Tancredo said. "American conservatives have watched dumbfounded as their Congress -- their Republican Congress -- and the Republican White House engineered the largest expansion of the federal government in modern history," Tancredo said.

2006 election campaign

Tancredo's opponent in the 2006 election campaign is Democrat Bill Winter. Tancredo holds a substantial fundraising lead over Winter. Juan Botero, a former member of the Colombian Armed Forces and a political consultant, has desided to challenge Tancredo in the primary. [link] [link]

Books

In Mortal Danger: The Battle for America's Border and Security WND Books, 2006. (ISBN 1581825277)

External links

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