Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO) is a conservative Republican who founded the House Immigration Reform Caucus, which has been able to block liberal, moderate, and business-oriented federal reform efforts. Aligned with the Christian Right, Tancredo is best known for his hardline stance on immigration and zealous rhetoric regarding "threats" to America in the "war on terror," themes that he focused on during his campaign for the 2008 Republican Party presidential nomination. Though short-lived, his presidential bid helped strengthen the nativist bloc within the Republican Party.
After working the campaign trail for much of 2007, Tancredo dropped out of the race in late December 2007. In announcing his decision, Tancredo highlighted what he considered his biggest campaign achievement—putting the issue of “illegal immigration” on the agenda. He said: “Even the Democrats are tortured by the fact that a misstatement on the issue, like for instance suggesting support for [New York Gov. Eliot] Spitzer’s plan to give driver’s licenses to illegal aliens, will cost them dearly at the polls. Who would’ve thought this could have happened six months ago?” (Des Moines Register, December 20, 2007).
Tancredo initially declared his presidential campaign on a conservative talk radio program in April 2007, arguing that he was uniquely qualified to deal with illegal immigration, which was to him the most pressing problem. His official statement read: "For too long Americans have been force-fed candidates who ignore or mock their valid concerns about the security of our borders, the enforcement of our immigration laws, and the survival of our national heritage. That ends today" (April 2, 2007).
"The political elite in Washington have chosen to ignore this phenomenon," said Tancredo, again talking about illegal immigration. "You look and you see no one is going to make this the primary issue of their campaign" (Washington Post, April 3, 2007).
Tancredo supports the Bush administration's war on terror , which he links to immigration; one of his main preoccupations is the possibility that Muslim terrorists might illegally enter the United States. (He once argued that the United States should consider "tak[ing] out" Islam's holy sites if extremists detonated a nuclear bomb in the United States (Associated Press, July 18, 2005). Tancredo used his campaign website to warn of hypothetical terrorists entering illegally into the United States. Said one undated post on his website: "The war America is already engaged in will not be fought like the wars of the past. After witnessing the tragic terrorist attacks against the nation, it is now time to coordinate the efforts of federal, state, and local agencies to provide better homeland defense. Tomorrow's attacker is more likely to board a commercial airliner bound for the United States with a tourist or student visa—or he may simply walk across our porous southern or northern border carrying a device in his backpack. These issues must be addressed. We are, I believe, in a clash of civilizations. That clash is fought on many fronts—some military, some diplomatic, and still others, ideological."
Tancredo is also a consistent supporter of the Pentagon and U.S. defense industries. His views on defense and security include pushing regime change in Iran, arguing that the controversial People's Freedom Fighters (Mujahedin-e Kalq, or MEK) could be a vanguard for such a strategy, and pushing for a new "balance of power" in the Middle East. He stated on his website: "At the end of the Constitutional Convention in 1787, a lady asked Benjamin Franklin, 'What have you given us?' He replied, 'A Republic, if you can keep it.' We have purchased an opportunity for Iraq and the entire Middle East with the blood and treasure of America. It was a noble endeavor for which all who served can be immensely proud. It is now time to see if the Iraqis can take advantage of the opportunity and 'keep' what has been so dearly purchased."
Tancredo won his first seat in Colorado’s House of Representatives in 1976, serving two terms from 1977 to 1981. During this time, he teamed up with other social conservatives and new-right advocatesto push for a number of socially conservative polices, including slashing taxes and cutting social services.
In 1981, Tancredo, who before joining politics was a junior high school history teacher in Denver, was appointed to head the regional office of the Reagan administration’s Department of Education. In 1985, Tancredo used his position to distribute to teachers a Christian nationalist speech by a former colleague that called for a "truly Christian educational system" and bemoaned the "godlessness" in a country founded as a "Christian nation."Despite the ensuing controversy, Tancredo kept his position and was reappointed by President George H.W. Bush in 1989 (American Prospect, November 10, 2005).
From 1993 to 1998, Tancredo served as president of the Independence Institute, a rightist think tank located in Golden, Colorado. The institute weighs in on an array of state issues, including government spending, education policy, and social issues. Its Board of Trustees includes Coors Brewing's Jeff Coors, a philanthropist involved in right-wing foundations established by the Coors family, including the Castle Rock Foundation.
A three-term limit promise by the Republican incumbent in the Sixth District left a congressional opening that Tancredo filled in 1999. Like his predecessor, Tancredo promised that he would limit his tenure in the House to three terms, saying: "We want to reinvigorate the electoral process by introducing people into the system who think of government service as a temporary endeavor, not as a career." Years later, Tancredo suggested that his obedience to God absolved him of his term limit pledge. Referring to his decision to go back on his word, Tancredo said, "I do put it in God's hands and I say, 'Lord, I hope I'm doing what you want'" (CounterPunch, April 28, 2004). He won a fifth term in the November 2006 midterms.
When Tancredo arrived in Washington in 1999, he refused to attend a White House session welcoming new representatives, saying that Bill Clinton wasn't a "real president." Several months later, Tancredo's acceptance of campaign funds from the gun lobby came under public scrutiny in the wake of the Columbine school shooting, which occurred in Tancredo's district and not far from his home.
Although Tancredo's own district, including the well-to-do suburbs of Denver, is not one where many immigrants live, Tancredo early on adopted immigration reform as his personal issue. In May 1999 he founded the House Immigration Reform Caucus. Serving as the chair of this congressional group, Tancredo succeeded in widening the base of Republican lawmakers who believe that immigration restrictionism should be the position of their party, which has traditionally adopted the posture of its business wing and favored a ready supply of cheap labor. The caucus grew from 16 members in 1999 to 110 by fall 2007, including 8 Democrats (Building Democracy Initiative, “Nativism in the House”). Tancredo gave up his post as caucus chair in early 2007 to focus on his presidential campaign.
Before September 11, 2001, immigration restrictionists had limited clout with the leaderships of either major political party. However, by mixing issues of national security, border control, national identity, and large immigration flows, Tancredo helped make immigration one of the issues of public debate that cut across the usual red-blue political divides. In 2003, Tancredo began to demonstrate the muscle of the Immigration Reform Caucus with his proposed Mass Immigration Reduction Act, which received support from such national restrictionist groups as NumbersUSA, Population-Environment Balance, Carrying Capacity Network, Federation for American Immigration Reform, Negative Population Growth, American Renaissance, and American Patrol. While that bill foundered, the House shocked the political establishment in December 2005 by passing the Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act (H.R. 4437), a harsh restrictionist bill that included measures to double the number of Border Patrol agents, dramatically expand the border wall, and incarcerate those crossing the border illegally. The so-called Sensenbrenner Bill (after its sponsor, Wisconsin Republican Rep. James Sensenbrenner) represented a sharp rebuff to President George W. Bush's own proposal for a guest-worker program. Five months later, the Senate passed the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2006 (S. 2611), a White House-backed bill that would have laid a route to citizenship for many longtime workers living illegally in the United States. Debate over immigration reform was brought to a boil, resulting in some of the largest demonstrations in U.S. history. Unlike the House bill, the Senate version had broad bipartisan support, yet neither the House nor the Senate bill made it into law.
Tancredo also founded Team America, which bills itself as "a political action committee dedicated to securing our nation's borders." Angela "Bay" Buchanan, sister of Pat Buchanan, serves as Team America's chair. According to Team America: "Illegal immigration is the most critical issue facing our nation today. The mission of Team America is to make this issue a significant part of the national political debate and to identify, recruit, and help elect to public office individuals who are committed to enforcing our laws and securing our borders."
Like many other social conservatives who came into politics with the rise of the New Right in the 1970s, Tancredo regards politics as a fight between the grassroots and the liberal establishment, generally found on the East Coast. For Tancredo, immigration is a life-or-death issue in the culture war to save America, and he doesn't intend to let party loyalties stand in the way of battling back in the clash of civilizations. One sign of this independence as a populist has been Team America's backing of restrictionist challengers to prominent Republican incumbents, including Utah's Rep. Chris Cannon and Arizona's Rep. Jim Kolbe.
Writing in the National Review, neoconservative author David Frum warned: "No issue, not one, threatens to do more damage to the Republican Party or the president than immigration" because of a serious schism in the “beliefs and interests” of Republican leaders and “rank-and-file” (December 31, 2004). Tancredo, however, believes that he has the masses of both parties on his side. When called to heel on separate occasions by former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and then-White House Chief of Staff Karl Rove, Tancredo didn't relent. Instead, he publicized these failed attempts at party discipline and in doing so increased his stature among immigration restrictionists, including such prominent media figures as Lou Dobbs, who fashions himself as a populist.
Tancredo is a frequent guest on radio and television news and talk shows, in part because of his often-shocking comments. Anti-immigration advocates like Tancredo reject the need for the legalization of the country's estimated 11 to 13 million undocumented residents, implying the need for massive deportations. While Tancredo does not deny that deportations will need to be dramatically increased in order to realize his vision, he argues that if employers were required to hire only authorized workers, they would be forced to raise wages and thus attract native workers. As a result, he writes, "Most illegal workers will go home voluntarily" when there are no more jobs to be had. "That strategy is 'enforcement first,'" according to Tancredo, "and it is better than amnesty" (Atlanta Journal-Constitution, December 4, 2005).
Tancredo bases his restrictionism not only on economic reasons, but also cultural and religious ones. Describing himself as a "devotee" of Samuel Huntington's thesis regarding a clash of civilizations, in an undated interview with Right Wing News, Tancredo said: "I believe that what we are fighting here is not just a small group of people who have hijacked a religion, but it is a civilization bent on destroying ours. … The threat to the United States comes from two things: the act of immigration combined with the cult of multiculturalism. … We will never be able to win in the clash of civilizations if we don't know who we are. If Western civilization succumbs to the siren song of multiculturalism, I believe we’re finished" (John Hawkins, Right Wing News).
"I have to tell you that we are facing a situation, where if we don't control immigration, legal and illegal, we will eventually reach the point where it won't be what kind of a nation we are, balkanized or united, we will actually have to face the fact that we are no longer a nation at all. That is the honest to God eventual outcome of this kind of massive immigration combined with the cult of multiculturalism that permeates our society. ... The fact is, that won't occur in a legal way, it will occur in a de facto way" (John Hawkins, Right Wing News).
Concerning the war on terror, Tancredo stated: "Radical Islam has been the foe of Christendom for centuries. The most serious foe of Christendom. The battle ebbs and flows, peaks and becomes less intense, but it has been going on for centuries. We have never really been bothered by it, because the world was a place in which you could not really attack the United States physically. There were oceans separating us and if you did come, what were you going to come with? A gun, a rock, an arrow? But today it has all changed, it has taken on a different dimension. ... This combination, massive immigration and radical multiculturalism," warned Tancredo, "is a prescription for our own demise" (John Hawkins, Right Wing News).
In another interview, Tancredo rhetorically asked: "What does it mean to be part of Western civilization? Are there inherent values that are worth anyone's allegiance?" (New Republic, March 17, 2005).
Like many other Republicans in the West, Tancredo takes a hard line toward China and is a strong supporter of Taiwan. Linking China and immigration, Tancredo told a crowd of immigration restrictionists that the Chinese government is "trying to export people" as a "way of extending their hegemony" (New Republic, March 17, 2005).
Concerning Iran, Tancredo advocates U.S. support for the MEK, whose political wing is the National Council of Resistance and armed wing is the Iraq-based National Liberation Army of Iran. MEK also calls itself the People's Mujahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI). The public face of the MEK is Maryam Rajavi, who has been designated by the MEK as the president-elect of Iran's government in exile.
Although identified as a terrorist organization by the State Department, Tancredo says "We should be aiding them, instead of restricting their activities. We can use the MEK; they are in fact warriors. Where we need to use that kind of force, we can use them" (Right Wing News).
Together with Rep. Bob Filner (D-CA), Tancredo in 2005 formed the Iran Human Rights and Democracy Caucus. On April 6, 2005, the caucus convened a briefing on Capitol Hill organized by Raymond Tanter’s conservative Iran Policy Committee, the most prominent policy institute dedicated to advancing a U.S. government-supported, Iranian-led regime change strategy. At that briefing, Tancredo called for the Bush administration to remove MEK from the list of terrorist organizations. According to Tancredo, MEK was designated not because it was involved in terrorist activities, but because the Clinton administration sought to curry favor with the Iranian regime.
On May 10, 2005 Tancredo organized another Capitol Hill briefing through the Iran Human Rights and Democracy Caucus that featured a variety of witnesses who spoke favorably of the MEK, including at least two U.S. military officials who had worked with the MEK in Iraq. On May 18, 2005, Tancredo took his support of the MEK to the House floor when he asked that excerpts of the briefing be included in the congressional record. In his statement, Tancredo said that 65 political groups in Iraq had organized a petition signed by 2.8 million Iraqis that criticized Iran-sponsored "Islamic fundamentalism's stealthy domination" of Iraq and strongly supported the PMOI. Tancredo called the organization the "main Iranian opposition group." Describing the petition, Tancredo said its supporters demanded that "the PMOI should be recognized in Iraq as 'a legitimate political movement'"—which is also one of the demands of the Iran Policy Committee.
Tancredo and Filner, the co-chairs of the Iran caucus, offered their support to a pro-MEK rally in Washington on January 19, 2006. In a letter to the rally organizers, the Council for Democratic Change in Iran, the co-chairs said: "We believe a possible alternative to the current government can be achieved through supporting the people of Iran and the Iranian resistance. ... We extend our solidarity to you and to the Iranian people and their defiance against tyranny."
The pro-MEK rally was endorsed by two U.S. senators: Tom Coburn (R-OK) and Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), and by four congressional representatives: Christopher Shays (R-CT), Ed Towns (D-NY), Filner, and Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) (see Council for Democratic Change in Iran, January 2006).
Asked by UPI why he supported the redesignation of MEK, Tancredo, who sits on the House Intelligence Committee, wrote that he supports the MEK because it is an "asset to U.S. intelligence" and "the most reliable source of information for the region" (United Press International, May 31, 2005).
By publicly supporting the MEK and the Iran Policy Committee, Tancredo has positioned himself with the most radical wing in the intensifying debate about how the U.S. government should pursue an Iran regime change strategy. All sides that favor such a strategy agree that the U.S. government should be working more closely with Iranian dissidents both inside and outside Iran.
There are at least three main factions of Iranian dissidents who would accept U.S. funding: the pro-monarchists who support Reza Pahlavi, the former shah's son; the anti-monarchists and pro-democracy dissidents who, like the monarchists, oppose the MEK; and the MEK adherents, who appear to be the largest organized faction in the United States and Europe and also the best financed. MEK supporters like Tancredo stand to the right of the Bush administration, which has declined to take the MEK off the list of terrorists. Bush has implicitly commended the MEK for its role in supplying the U.S. intelligence about Iran's purported program to develop nuclear weapons. There have also been reports, notably in an American Conservative item written by former CIA officer Philip Giraldi, which say that the U.S. Special Forces have been working with the MEK in carrying out reconnaissance and intelligence collection operations in Iran. Many Iranian nationals and expatriates oppose U.S. government support to Iranian groups either in the United States or in Iraq because they say such aid would discredit the opposition in the eyes of the Iranian public (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, April 4, 2006).
Tancredo has been an enthusiastic supporter of the U.S. war in Iraq. In a section devoted to Iraq on his official congressional website, Tancredo once had this statement posted: "The United States did not invade Iraq to conquer it, but rather to set it free. The United States does not stand to gain territory, oil, or any other spoils of war. We all should be proud of that sacrifice." Concerning the war on terrorism, Tancredo stated: "Ultimately, I believe that the leadership of President Bush and the determination of the American people will result in the needed investments in technology, people, and weapons systems to combat, deter, and respond to future acts of brutality and terror by our enemies."
Tancredo's political leanings and philosophy are evident in his voting record and positions on policy issues, as evaluated by political advocacy groups. In recent years, the percentage of times Tancredo supported the following interest groups is telling: American Conservative Union, 92%; National Right to Life, 100%; NARAL Pro-Choice America, 0%; Planned Parenthood, 0%; National Federation of Independent Business, 100%; National Council of La Raza, 0%; Arab American Institute, 0%; Eagle Forum, 97%; Family Research Council, 100%; Concerned Women for America, 93%; and American Wilderness Coalition, 0%. (Statistics from Project Vote Smart; for more on Tancredo and other representatives' voting records, see www.vote-smart.org.)
Tancredo is a frequent speaker at regional and national anti-immigration gatherings that include speakers from various vigilante and nativist groups, including such national figures as Chris Simcox, Glenn Spencer, and Barbara Coe. On Memorial Day weekend 2005, Tancredo was the keynote speaker at a Las Vegas meeting that aimed to coordinate anti-immigrant and militia operations. Coe, leader of the California Coalition for Immigration Reform, told the assembly that illegal immigrants were "illegal barbarians who are cutting off heads and appendages of blind, white, disabled gringos." A fellow traveler with the anti-immigration organizations is the National Alliance, a white supremacist group, which had a billboard outside the meeting hall that read "Stop Immigration" (American Prospect, November 10, 2005).
About two months before the 2006 midterm elections, Tancredo was criticized for giving a speech in South Carolina that was attended by people associated with supremacist groups, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). The SPLC also reported that "Tancredo addressed the standing-room audience of 200-250 from behind a podium draped in a Confederate battle flag" (SPLC, September 11, 2006). "'How can Mr. Tancredo claim to be representing the people of Colorado when he is pandering to hate groups in South Carolina?' said Bill Winter, 6th Congressional District candidate" (Denver Post, September 14, 2006). Despite the criticism, Tancredo won the November 2006 election handily.
In June 2006, his book In Mortal Danger: The Battle for America's Border and Security was published by WND Books. The staff review from Washington notebook The Hill read: "Anyone with a conservative bone in his body will nod his head in agreement at Tancredo's condemnations of multiculturalism, but they come across more as arguments against, well, multiculturalism than against immigration per se" (The Hill, June 22, 2006).
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Affiliations
Independence Institute: President, 1993-1998
Team America: Founder
Government Service
House of Representatives: 1999-present
Immigration Reform Caucus: Founder and Chairman
Iran Human Rights and Democracy Caucus: Co-Chairman
House Committee on Foreign Affairs:Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health; Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade
House Committee on Natural Resources: Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests, and Public Lands
Colorado House of Representatives : 1977-1981
Education
University of Northern Colorado: B.A., political science
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