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Lawmaker: Get tougher on immigration

In a visit to Iowa, Colorado's Tom Tancredo says he'll run for president if other GOP candidates don't heed his call.

By THOMAS BEAUMONT
REGISTER STAFF WRITER
July 9, 2005

Colorado Republican Tom Tancredo said in Iowa this week that he will run for president in 2008 if no top-tier Republicans pick up his call for stricter immigration law enforcement.

Tancredo, a congressman from suburban Denver, is calling for border control by the U.S. military. He also supports sending all undocumented immigrants back to their homelands, a measure intended to reserve jobs for those in the country legally.

Opponents say the idea is unworkable and that it would hurt Latinos already working in the United States.

The four-term House member met Thursday evening with members of the Christian Coalition of Iowa in Davenport before making similar stops in Cedar Rapids and Cedar Falls on Friday. He planned to leave Iowa today after a morning event in Dubuque.

"I'm here to get people to ask the question: What are you going to do about illegal immigration?" Tancredo told The Des Moines Register in a telephone interview Friday. "And if I can help elevate this issue to where it really does command the debate, I will have done my job. If no one else will take up this issue in the presidential campaign, then I will."

Tancredo argues that illegal immigration is hurting the economy because it propagates the use of disproportionately cheap labor.

In addition to Iowa, host of the lead-off GOP presidential nominating caucuses in 2008, Tancredo also has traveled to New Hampshire, home of the first-in-the-nation presidential primary.

Tancredo, a close ally of Republican Rep. Steve King of Iowa, has proposed legislation that would put troops on the U.S.-Mexican border to halt illegal immigration. The proposal also would dramatically increase the number of border guards, who would eventually take the military's place in filling gaps along the border.

The legislation, which has failed in the House both times Tancredo introduced it, would require employers to verify the validity of immigrants' Social Security numbers, now an option for businesses, and forbid amnesty for immigrants in the country illegally.

Adding border guards will cost money, Tancredo said, but he added: "What is our priority, to secure the nation or fund the National Endowment for the Arts?"

The National Council of La Raza, a national Hispanic advocacy group, supports earned legalization for undocumented immigrants in the United States, by which they prove their willingness to seek legal status by paying a fine, getting a job, and demonstrating proficiency in English.

"We, like the American people, know the system is broken," said Michele Waslin, the group's immigration policy research director. "We just don't think rounding up 11 million people and deporting them is the solution."