Politics

Tom Tancredo Does the Dirty Jobs So You—and Illegal Immigrants—Don't Have To!

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Rep. Tom Tancredo, the immigrant-bashing GOP presidential hopeful, was the sole member of the Party of Lincoln to speak to a recent NAACP confab in Detroit Rock City. From a Boston Globe account:

"Do you think we should wait a few minutes to see if the [other GOP candidates] show up?" Tancredo said, drawing a big laugh from the crowd. "Do they know something I don't know, is that it? I think actually I know something that they don't know."

That line drew a loud cheer from the audience, clearly appreciative that Tancredo had bothered to show up. He used his opening remarks to talk about his signature issue, illegal immigration, and how it was hurting American workers, and especially African-American workers. Tancredo said he gets "insulted" every time he hears that illegal immigrants are working jobs American citizens won't take.

"I've done those jobs, you've done those jobs, our kids have done those jobs," he said.

More here.

Here's the grueling work history described at the candidate's campaign website:

Before his election to Congress, he served five years in the Colorado legislature, and was appointed regional representative for the Department of Education by President Reagan, a position he held for over ten years.

More here.

As befits a president, Tancredo is being too modest. There's some real callous-building activity in his past. Wikipedia's entry on Tancredo notes that the congressman was eligible for service in Vietnam but received a deferment. Here's the Denver Post's account:

As a Republican student activist, Tancredo spoke out in favor of the Vietnam War. After graduating from the University of Northern Colorado in June 1969, he became eligible to serve in Vietnam. Tancredo said he went for his physical, telling doctors he'd been treated for depression, and eventually got a "1-Y" deferment.

But Young Tom wasn't done with doing the jobs that only nativist Americans will do, the Post reports. After skipping the war he supported, he "became a junior high school teacher" before running for the state legislature in 1976.

More here.

Tancredo responds to reason cover story on immigrants working the Christmas Tree industry in North Carolina here.