Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2005 10:09 a.m. EST
Tancredo Would Bring Border Issues to 2008 Race



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Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.) has designs on running for president in 2008. Whether he hopes to win or not still remains a mystery.

Tancredo, well known for his campaigns against illegal immigration, hopes to become active in the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary to make sure immigration reform issues are prominent in the campaign regardless of the participants in the 2008 race.

Tancredo told The New York Sun that he has not formally declared his candidacy for the GOP nomination, but he is already making campaign stops from coast to coast and writing a book about immigration, tentatively titled "In Mortal Danger." That book could serve as Tancredo's campaign platform when it becomes available in June 2006.

Tancredo said that he would enter the presidential race if no other Republican emerges who will "include immigration in their platform ... and do so with some degree of vigor."

Among the possible candidates rumored to have interest in the 2008 race, only former House speaker Newt Gingrich - who wrote in a recent report for the Center for Immigration Studies that immigrants' dual citizenship posed an "insidious challenge" - has come the closest to being satisfactorily strong on the issue, Tancredo said.
The Republican Party has made great efforts to attract Hispanic voters - many of whom came to the United States legally and who are working hard to significantly contribute to their personal, family and the nation's prosperity. Tancredo hopes his efforts to reform immigration will ignite an effort to recapture the entrepreneurial spirit of all Americans who realize that illegal immigration - not immigration in general - poses a threat to the economic and social network of the U.S., as well as a security threat to all citizens.

Rep. Steve King - an influential Iowa Republican - served on the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus founded by Tancredo. He said Iowans, though they are far removed from the borders, see illegal immigration as a key issue for the nation.

"How can a nation have a border they don't defend?" Mr. King told the Sun. "If it's not really a border, then you're not really a nation."