Tancredo talkingWhite House bid

Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo told Iowa members of the Christian Coalition this week he will run for president in 2008 if no top-tier Republican candidate takes up his call for tougher enforcement of the nation's immigration laws.

"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. "And if I can help elevate this issue to where it really does command the debate, I will have done my job.'

Tancredo, a Republican from suburban Denver, made stops in Cedar Rapids, Cedar Falls, Davenport and Dubuque, pushing for border control. The congressman is calling for placement of the military on the U.S.-Mexico border and repatriation of all undocumented immigrants back to their country of origin in an effort to save jobs for those in the U.S. legally.

The Bush administration, said Tancredo, has failed to close the border because U.S. businesses are "hooked" on the cheap labor of illegal aliens, and its ready supply is encouraging the disproportionate use of non-citizen labor.

"People in the lower income brackets have not had an actual increase in their income in over 10 years. In real dollar terms, it's decreased. That's never happened before and there's a reason," Tancredo told Radio Iowa. "It's supply and demand."

Tancredo said the issue of illegal immigration and weak borders should be championed by anyone choosing to run for president, but if they fail, he will step into the fray.

"It is imperative that we actually have a chief executive who is willing to actually confront this issue head on," Tancredo said. "If we can get no one else to take up their banner with their heart and with their lips, then I will."

Tancredo's proposal to put troops on the border includes a dramatic increase in the number of Border Patrol agents who would ultimately take the military's place. The legislation, which includes requirements for employers to verify the validity of immigrants' Social Security numbers and forbids amnesty for those in the country illegally, has failed twice in the House.

Tancredo concedes beefing up border security would be expensive, but adds, "What is our priority, to secure the nation or fund the National Endowment for the Arts?"

"Porous borders allow people into this country who have things on their mind other than just trying to get a job. They are coming here to do very bad things. They are coming to kill you and me and my kids and yours," Tancredo says. "If we don't control our own borders, then we can't possibly hope to really be terribly successful in this 'war on terror.'"

National Council of La Raza research director Michele Waslin voiced opposition to Tancredo's proposals.

"We, like the American people, know the system is broken," she told the Register. "We just don't think rounding up 11 million people and deporting them is the solution."

In addition to visiting Iowa, where the lead-off GOP presidential nominating caucuses will take place in 2008, Tancredo has recently traveled to New Hampshire, home of the nation's first presidential primary.

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