Posted on 12/17/2005 3:57:17 AM PST by YCTHouston
GOP embraces ex-outsider and his hard-line positions Tancredo still relishes defying his party leaders on border issue
By GEBE MARTINEZ Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON - Tom Tancredo threw his head back and laughed the laughter of sweet vindication.
The Colorado Republican congressman was recalling in a recent interview the 2004 Republican National Convention, when White House political strategist Karl Rove wouldn't tell him where the platform committee had assembled. Rove apparently wanted to prevent Tancredo from embarrassing President Bush by trying to add strong anti-immigration phrases as Bush was wooing Hispanic voters.
Tancredo laughed again as he mimicked the scolding he said he got last year from then-Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land, for setting up a political committee that backed Republican primary candidates, even against GOP incumbents, who shared Tancredo's call for zero tolerance on immigration laws.
But now, the immigration issue has moved to the forefront, Bush has toughened his stance against illegal immigration and the House was expected to pass legislation late Friday that would crack down on illegal immigration.
As one of the major reasons for the action, Tancredo is no longer treated as an outsider in his own party. He is invited to the weekly "unity" dinners sponsored by House GOP leaders, even as he encounters criticism of his legislative proposals from many Republican and Democratic lawmakers.
After arriving in Congress in 1999, Tancredo, the grandson of Italian immigrants, began pushing the immigration issue with a single-mindedness rarely seen on Capitol Hill.
On talk radio and cable television and in nightly speeches in an empty House chamber, he railed against illegal immigration and the increasing number of foreigners granted visas to enter the United States.
Started in the 1970s Tancredo became an immigration foe in the 1970s when, as a junior high school teacher, he saw the start of Colorado's bilingual education programs. During four years as a state lawmaker, starting in 1977, Tancredo attempted unsuccessfully to strike all funding for bilingual education, contending it hurt student test scores.
Tancredo tried to make immigration an issue in his first congressional race.
"Nobody would say I was right; nobody would say anything," he recalled. But he kept talking about it.
"Then 9/11 happened and everything turned topsy-turvy."
When the 9/11 attacks were carried out by Middle Easterners who entered the country with documents that appeared legal, national security concerns entered the immigration debate. And again Tancredo was at the forefront.
The GOP maverick thought no one was listening. But he had underestimated the appeal of his message. The House Immigration Reform Caucus, which began with 16 members, now has five times that number.
Tancredo is even thinking about a presidential bid.
"It was completely serendipitous," Tancredo said, explaining his rise from obscurity. "I certainly never planned to be at odds with the president of my own party and my own leadership."
These days he seems to relish defying party leaders. When Bush recently bowed to criticism by party conservatives and urged stronger border enforcement, Tancredo said: "As with all politicians who change their rhetoric and their policies under political pressure, the public must continue to push the administration to follow up on its words."
Under the banner of compassionate conservatism, Bush has proposed a way for illegal immigrants to get temporary legal status as guest workers.
Tancredo's approach, in his own words: "If you are truly compassionate, what you will do is to construct a [physical] barrier ... so that you will be able to discourage people from trying to come. Because those folks are the ones dying in the desert."
Critics, however, suggest he's using the immigration issue to make a name for himself.
"I know that Mr. Tancredo is sincere, but I don't think he has been constructive," said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, the cosponsor of an immigration bill in the Senate. "Is a politician making a sincere effort at trying to find a solution to a problem? Or are they using it as a lightening rod to generate political support?"
Rep. Linda T. Sánchez, D-Calif., a member of the House Judiciary Committee, said the nation needs comprehensive immigration reform, including border security and a way for immigrants to earn legal status.
"His personal vendetta and venomous rhetoric against immigrants does not contribute anything constructive to the immigration debate," she said of Tancredo.
His allies regard him as a political warrior unafraid of bucking establishment opinion.
"He's been a really outstanding voice and has had to arm wrestle with members of the administration who haven't been interested in moving this issue," said House Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter, R-Calif.
Tancredo annoyed some Republicans by aggressively campaigning in a California special House election against the GOP nominee and in favor of Jim Gilchrist, co-founder of the Minuteman Project of armed citizen border patrols.
Gilchrist ran as an American Independent Party candidate with an anti-immigration agenda and came in third. He lost the conservative Orange County seat to Republican state Sen. John Campbell. Democrat Steve Young finished second.
15 interviews a week Tancredo now does about 15 radio and TV immigration-related interviews a week. He concedes his argument benefits from some people not distinguishing between legal and illegal immigrants.
"They go into the hospitals, they go into the emergency rooms and they see people who they believe to be illegal immigrants. They read that people are coming across the border to get benefits," Tancredo said.
"You cannot tell a person's immigration status by looking at them," countered Lisa Navarette of the National Council of La Raza.
But after years of being on what he called the defensive on the issue, Tancredo brags that momentum is now on his side: "It's happening, and it's the number one topic."
gebe.martinez@chron.com
Absolutely true.
As opposed to you Mr. Cornyn?! As a native Texan I'm ashamed of and for you Mr. Cornyn; please go away and take your and Bush's brand of conservatism with you as we Texans and Americans can't really afford it, it's bankrupting us all.
"I certainly never planned to be at odds with the president of my own party and my own leadership."
Believe me - we were driven away.
Since I'm a sporadic Freeper, fill me in on "FROBL." I understand who it refers to, but don't know what it stands for.
FreeRepublic Open Borders Lobby, aka those on FreeRepublic who wholeheartedly support wide open borders of our nation with Mexico and Canada, to allow anyone at will to cross to and fro without restrictions. They believe it is okay for employers to hire these illegal aliens at whatever wages they can negotiate without regard to what it does to law abiding Americans and their families and our nations social infrastructure. They generally are world globalist trumpeters. Sound familiar?
Correct. I believe it is Sean Hannity that says that we have not deserted the Republicans - they have deserted us. I am not going to support any party that refuses to uphold our Constitution and our federal immigration laws.
I'm glad Tancredo is finally getting his moment in the sun.
Thanks, Ron. One more thing if I may, I suspect many of the FROBLers profit from illegal labor (as in their businesses, or immigration law, or something along those lines). For all we know, they may be paid by foreign governments. One thing "they" rarely, rarely have is a state flag on their home page. Hmmmmmmmm.
Deport all criminal invaders ~ Bump!
"Press 2 to be deported...."
ROTF....
Tagline bump.....without this "single issue" nothing else will matter anyway!
it really irks me that the D's are harder on this issue than the R's, what little that is.
Who the hell is supposed to be protecting this country anyways???
"Who the hell is supposed to be protecting this country anyways???"
Ahem..................the Minutemen.
Thanks Ron.
Many libertarians have long argued for open borders, on philosophical grounds. The latest, pro-Bush open borders lobby I think falls into different categories:
1. People who abhor manual labor, and assume we need mexicans do the work "Americans won't do." They may also work in construction or restaurant businesses and benefit from cheap labor.
2. Those who see a wide-open North American economic bloc as a counter to the EU.
Neither group sees or cares what unchecked immigration does to the country and culture in the meantime.
~~ or ~ Hang 'em High ~ Bump!
Bump!
With more than a million legal immigrants entering every year, there is no way the federal bureaucracies that deal with immigrants and national security threats could handle the problem.
It would take an army larger than any in the world simply to keep track of the aliens who are already here.
But national security, an obvious and immediate threat, is only part of the problem with mass immigration. The larger problem is the impact the immigration numbers have—on the economy, the culture, the educational system, crime and social institutions generally. And even larger than that is the number problem by itself.
Mr. Tancredo in his statement remarked "The Census Bureau projects that U.S. population will hit 400 million by 2050 and 571 million by 2100"—up from 280 million in the 2000 Census.
But the congressman's numbers were outdated only weeks after he cited them. This month the Census Bureau announced that by 2050, the national population will stand at 420 million, 17 million more than the previous estimate.
If you like sitting in traffic, standing in line, paying skyrocketing rents and home prices, and watching natural resources vanish to sustain this level of human numbers, you'll think the America of the future is a utopia.
Excerpted from 2003 article The Tancredo Moratorium Bill
I would concur.
Once again, legal immigration and ILlegal immigration are completely conflated.
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