Tancredo takes McCain to task on immigration

Rep. Tom Tancredo

Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado drew attention early in the Republican primaries as a champion of securing the nation's borders against illegal crossing and fighting against amnesty for illegal immigrants.

Now, in an open letter to presumptive Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain, Tancredo is questioning McCain's private meeting with Hispanic leaders in Chicago last week and challenging the candidate to stand firm on border security, regardless of the audience he's addressing.

With a finger-in-the-chest tone, the congressman asks McCain whether he backpedaled on border security pledges in Chicago, where it was reported the Arizona senator promised an audience of 150 Hispanic leaders "comprehensive immigration reform."

"Senator," reads Tancredo's letter, "given your past sponsorship of amnesty legislation, such statements raise troubling questions. Are you planning to break a promise you made in February to postpone all other immigration reform legislation until we have first secured our borders?"

Tancredo goes on to allege that promises for secure borders have been dangled as carrots to lead legislators into voting for amnesty measures but were then yanked away unfulfilled "after the amnesty was achieved."

"Republican lawmakers in the House of Representatives are resolved to never let that happen again," the letter warns. "Are you prepared to wage war on conservatives to secure another amnesty for illegal aliens? I hope not," writes Tancredo.

Tancredo's letter is only the most recent fire McCain has drawn for his closed-door meeting last week.

In a conference call with reporters, Obama communications director Robert Gibbs described the Chicago event as double-talk, referencing McCain's advocacy of immigration reform in 2006 and 2007, his rejection of the reform bills he once promoted and his new promises of reform once again.

Rosalanna Pulido, a Hispanic Republican who attended the Chicago meeting with McCain, told the Associated Press the senator appears one way in front of white Republicans and another in front of Hispanics.

"He's having his private meetings to rally Hispanics and to tell them what they want to hear," she said. "I'm outraged that he would reach out to me as a Hispanic but not as a conservative."

Tancredo's letter now serves a bold challenge to McCain as the senator prepares to address the National Council of La Raza, the largest national Latino civil rights and advocacy organization in the U.S., according to its website, next month.

"Senator, you have said many times in recent months, 'I got the message' on border security," Tancredo's letter says. "If you go to the La Raza convention in San Diego and deliver a message that surrenders to their amnesty agenda, tens of millions of Americans who heard your earlier message will feel betrayed – and rightly so."

The letter concludes with a pair of jabs, challenging McCain to maintain a commitment to border security "whether the audience be black or white, Asian or Hispanic."

Tancredo also played on McCain's campaign slogan, writing, "Giving Americans 'Straight Talk' – telling them what they need to hear instead of what they want to hear – demonstrates leadership, and as you have correctly pointed out many times in the past, that is what America needs now more than ever."

Related special offers:

Get "The Late Great USA" and find out how America is giving away its sovereignty

Autographed! – Pat Buchanan unleashed on border crisis

Get Minutemen founder's new book

"Conquest of Aztlan: Will Mexicans retake American Southwest?"

SECRETS OF THE INVASION: Why America's government invites rampant illegal immigration

'Invasion'? Michelle Malkin reveals feds still welcoming terrorists, criminals to America

Your country is 'In Mortal Danger': Congressman Tom Tancredo warns that the U.S. is on course to the dustbin of history

Obama calls Hazleton ruling 'a victory for all Americans'

Mayor wins both GOP, Democrat primaries

Now Arizona law chases illegals out

Mandatory deportation has illegals on the run