Tancredo calls illegal immigration threat to U.S.
By GARY HARMON, The Daily Sentinel
Illegal immigration into the United States threatens the future of the nation, a Colorado congressman told Mesa County Republicans on Friday.
U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Centennial, drew two standing ovations from about 100 Republicans, even though he acknowledged his stand on illegal immigration runs counter to that of the party's leader, President Bush.
Forcing a national debate over illegal immigration transcends party loyalty though, he said. At issue, he said, isn't so much whether the United States will have a Balkanized future, but whether it will have a future as a nation at all.
Illegal immigration combined with "the cult of multiculturalism" and the welfare state threaten to undermine and bankrupt American institutions, he said.
Tancredo joked that he actually was on his way to California to get in on the governor's race. In an exclusive interview with The Daily Sentinel, however, he said the stakes actually are a bit higher than a governor's race.
He has visited California on several occasions with the hope of forcing illegal immigration to a top-level issue in the 2004 presidential race.
One vehicle, he said, might be a referendum in the nation's most populous state that would limit access to any government services to citizens or legal residents only.
"Even if I'm 180 degrees wrong," he said, "the subject at least deserves a debate."
Tancredo said he advocates securing the nation's southern border using a 20,000-strong Border Patrol combined with high-tech equipment to prevent illegal border crossings.
A guest-worker program might be in order for industries that couldn't otherwise find employees, but no such program could work without a secure border, he said.
It's particularly important to secure the border, he said, because it isn't used only by Mexicans seeking employment.
"Huge numbers" of Middle-Easterners frequently cross the border, often helped by Mexican drug gangs who charge $30,000 for the use of their expertise, he said.
"I don't blame them," he said of illegal immigrants looking north for opportunity, but he noted the Mexican government relies heavily on money sent by illegal immigrants to their relatives to bolster the economy.
That amounts to about $10 billion a year, a third of the Mexican gross domestic product, he said.
Tancredo urged the Mesa County Republicans to insist that all candidates be held to account on illegal-immigration issues.
Even if offices such as city council or county commissioner seem to have little to do with illegal immigration, candidates still should be forced to take a position.
"Get them on record," he said.
