Tancredo Talks Tough on Immigration, Riles Powerful People

WASHINGTON — Rep. Tom Tancredo likes a good fight.

The Colorado Republican, who is running for president, has managed to upset a variety of powerful people, including former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, GOP strategist Karl Rove, and just about every Hispanic advocacy group in Washington.

The source of the conflicts: Tancredo's unyielding battle against illegal immigration and what he calls the "cult of multiculturalism."

A hero of the working man to some and a dangerous xenophobe to others, Tancredo has taken his tough talk on the political road in an underdog campaign that has pushed GOP White House contenders to talk more about illegal immigration.

Tancredo pulls no punches when it comes to his signature issue.

"You have a massive legal and illegal immigration of a great many people who don't want to be Americans," he said in an interview earlier this year. "It's dangerous. We could end up with a cultural, linguistic and even political Tower of Babel."

Tancredo, 61, grew up in a Denver suburb without any memorable exposure to illegal immigration. A Republican from a young age, he recalls being one of two students in his Catholic high school who voted in a mock election against then-Sen. John F. Kennedy, who would become the first Catholic U.S. president.

Tancredo worked throughout high school and college at an amusement park in Denver, where he started sweeping floors and eventually became the park's general manager.

He graduated from the University of Northern Colorado and became a junior high school civics teacher.

Tancredo said his concern over illegal immigration and "the cult of multiculturalism" began when Colorado implemented bilingual education, which puts Spanish-speaking students into separate classes.

Students with Hispanic surnames who didn't even speak Spanish were put into the classes, which was ridiculous and harmful, Tancredo said.

Tancredo later ran for a state House seat and won. Although he tried, he never succeeded in abolishing the bilingual education program. He was elected to the U.S. Congress in 1998.

He has been married to his wife, Jackie, for 30 years. They met as teachers at Drake Junior High in Arvada, Colo., where Jackie taught French. They have two sons and five grandchildren. Large poster-size portraits of the grandkids adorn Tancredo's congressional office.

As the immigration issue began to heat up in the past few years, so did Tancredo's notoriety. He has become a frequent guest on conservative talk radio and appears on television often.

Bill Salier, who is running Tancredo's Iowa operation, said he was drawn to the lawmaker because Tancredo is a true conservative with a strong stance against abortion and in favor of abolishing the U.S. tax code, greater border security, and assimilating immigrants.

"To change our culture to match others who want to come here is clearly not what's going to maintain the greatness of America," said Salier, who once ran for Senate.

Supporters also point to Tancredo's softer side. Tancredo organized the gathering of food and medical supplies to help after a school hostage crisis in Beslan, Russia. Tancredo delivered them in person, along with letters of encouragement and sympathy from students at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., where a tragic school shooting had occurred a few years earlier.

Tancredo has also worked with lawmakers from both sides of the aisle to raise awareness and pass legislation to end genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan.

But Tancredo's stance on immigration has upset many who call him a dangerous force in Congress and part of an extremist, nativist wing of the Republican Party that is hostile to Hispanics and other minorities.

"His presence in the race will continue to signal to Latinos that Republicans are really very divided on whether we are good for this country," said Cecilia Munoz, vice president for policy at the National Council of La Raza, a Hispanic civil rights organization. "He really reflects an uglier side of the (Republican) party."

Together with other like-minded talk show hosts, politicians and pundits, Tancredo is "part of a dialogue which is giving aid and comfort to hate groups in this country," Munoz added.

Tancredo, a grandson of Italian immigrants, denies all charges of racism and xenophobia. He said he feels compassion for illegal immigrants, but greater compassion for displaced American workers who he believes are suffering because of the government's failure to protect the borders and stop illegal intruders.

Tancredo announced last month he was retiring from Congress after five terms, saying that his task of making illegal immigration a national issue was complete. He has not ruled out a Senate run against incumbent Ken Salazar, a Democrat who supported an immigration overhaul that would have given many illegal immigrants a path to citizenship.

Steffen Schmidt, a political science professor at Iowa State University, said that Tancredo's focus on illegal immigration has helped elevate the issue in the presidential campaign, but has not propelled Tancredo forward in the standings.

"You can't be a single-issue candidate on an issue that isn't the number one concern," Schmidt said.

He allowed that Tancredo could do well in Western Iowa where GOP Rep. Steve King, an ardent critic of illegal immigration, was re-elected last year with 59 percent of the vote. However, the area has a relatively low population.

Will Adams, Tancredo's former press secretary, told the Rocky Mountain News last year that the congressman's strategy in politics is "whatever he decides at that moment."

"He shoots from the hip ... the key to the strategy is to get a big fish to respond," Adams said.

Tancredo's fight with Jeb Bush began when Tancredo likened Miami to a Third World country. It prompted an angry exchange in letters and statements with the Florida governor, who eventually called Tancredo "a nut."

Previously, Tancredo rankled Richardson after he accused the New Mexico governor of using emergency federal funds to keep tabs on the Minutemen citizen border patrol group. In a response letter, Richardson said people were growing tired of Tancredo's "blustering." Richardson, a Democrat, is also running for president.

Tancredo also said that Rove called him to complain after Tancredo said in a newspaper story that the Bush administration would have blood on its hands if a terrorist crossed the porous Southern border and attacked the United States.

Tancredo said the high-profile arguments are a positive thing.

"It's a great way for us to really get this issue in front of people," he said.

He has also made headlines on other issues. In 1995, he said on a Florida talk show that the United States could threaten to "take out" Islamic holy sites, including Mecca, if Muslim fundamentalists wage a nuclear attack on America.

His comment was skewered in editorials across the country and in some foreign nations and was denounced by the U.S. State Department as "insulting and offensive."

Tancredo later released a clarification which said he did not advocate bombing Mecca and that "much more thought would need to be given to the potential ramifications of such a horrific response."

Tancredo also upset minority members of Congress earlier this year for advocating an end to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and the Congressional Black Caucus, which he says are "race based" organizations that amount to segregation.

Tancredo makes no apologies for his statements and says he does not worry about upsetting powerful people.

"What have I got to lose? Will they take away my fabulous committee chairmanships?" he said, with a laugh. Tancredo lacks any high-profile congressional posts. He did, however, chair an unofficial caucus pushing for more immigration enforcement.

Rep. Brian Bilbray, a California Republican who succeeded Tancredo in that post, said Tancredo was instrumental in making illegal immigration a top issue in Congress.

"He shocked Washington into paying attention. He rattled their cages and that's what it takes," Bilbray said.

On the Web:

Tom Tancredo presidential campaign site: www.teamtancredo.org