Recently in Tancredo Watch Category

Colorado U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo gave an interview to conservative Frontpage Magazine. It seems when he loosens up and talks to a conservative outfit the results are always entertaining. Here's a quote:

One of the problems in Mexico and in many South and Central American countries is that there is an enormous amount of corruption, and it goes from the cop on the beat to the highest levels of government. That will always stymie their attempts to improve their economy. But it also is something that’s happening on our own border. I talked to a man who headed up a gang unit out of Los Angeles. He told me that there were five cities -- Compton, California, near Los Angeles, was one -- that were completely taken over by the Mexican Mafia. He said they had taken over the city council, the mayor’s office, the police chief…it has become simply another place for illegal drug activity in an institutionalized fashion. He said they couldn’t bust anybody in town. They can't talk to the police in these towns. And the same thing is happening in places like Douglas, Arizona, which I think was rated as the most corrupt town in the country by one magazine recently.

I have some personal experience in this area, having spent a few years living in Texas border towns. The corruption charge is believable. It doesn't have much to do with illegal immigration, but everything to do with the drug trade. I don't suppose Tancredo would do anything to solve the problem, such as push for legalization. I'll have to ask him some time.

Also, have you ever seen a congressman accuse entire city governments of being corrupt? Has anyone in Compton or Douglas responded to these allegations?

Tancredo isn't done yet:

So what we are seeing is a phenomenon that is really disturbing and it’s all about numbers. People talk about illegal immigration being a problem. It’s not just illegal immigration: it is immigration both legal and illegal, on a massive scale.

You heard it straight from the horse's mouth. Legal immigration is a problem.

Also in that interview, Tancredo mentions the Aztlan movement, a Mexican separatist group which wants to establish a Mexican territory in the southwest U.S. It's a radical group with about zero influence among immigrants and hispanic residents, but Tancredo seems to take it seriously.

Colorado's national embarrassment, Rep. Tom Tancredo, steps in it again:

Tancredo said sheriffs in his home state of Colorado have started to realize that detaining illegal immigrants can be a profit-making venture. The sheriffs are detaining illegal immigrants who have been arrested and charged with committing a local crime and billing the federal government for the immigrants’ detention, he said.

Update:

Talkleft opines:

We're adamantly opposed to this. For one thing, it will step up racial profiling. Driving While Latino. For another, many immigration violations are civil, not criminal violations.

Agreed.

Certain ambitious politicians aren't above using the anniversary of 9-11 to promote distasteful policy goals.

Rep. Tom Tancredo has dropped a plan to commemorate ''victims of illegal immigration and open borders'' on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.

The event was to include relatives of those who died Sept. 11, as well as people who lost their jobs to illegal immigrants and people injured by illegal immigrant drunken drivers and criminals.

At least someone had the sense to tell Rep. Tancredo how bad the idea was.

The event, however, has been replaced by ''A Day of Remembrance for 9-11 Victims.'' It, too, is sponsored by the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus chaired by Tancredo.

In August, the Colorado Republican was asked if the original event might be seen as equating the Sept. 11 attacks that killed 3,000 people with the crime of crossing the border for a job.

Ya think?

Matt Welch catches up with Colorado Congresscritter Tom Tancredo with a post at Hit and Run.

I posted a some of the same stuff here more than two weeks ago.

Matt cites some more juicy Tancredoisms, including:

We are creating linguistic ghettos where millions of immigrants speak no English while replicating living standards such as those found in Haiti, Calcutta and poor nations [...]

Colorado. Great climate, wonderful scenery, all sorts of outdoor activities, and at least one embarrassment of a congressman. (Interview from 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.

There are places right now in East LA & Southern Texas that you would not honestly -- there is absolutely nothing that you would say makes them part of the United States of America. They are a separate country -- it is separate country -- right now, at this moment.

I don't know how to take this other than if Tancredo doesn't think you live like an American, or talk like one, then you aren't really an American.
More Tom T.:

There is place at the Northern tip of Brazil that is referred to as the "Tri-Border Area" -- Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina. This area is responsible of a huge flow of illegal immigrants into the United States including large numbers of Middle-Easterners. They come into South America, into Brazil, they are kept there for a period time to become a little bit better with the language. Brazil is a country, very eclectic in nature, you cannot look at anybody and say they are Brazilian. You have no idea. They're black, they're white, they're brown, they're everything. So they're given Brazillian documents and move them to the United States.

Someone get Tom a globe. Argentina is what direction from Brazil? Shame about those Brazilians and their racial corruption, huh Tom?

Read the article for yourself, find your own Tancredo gems. Find out how he feels about Mexican workers here sending back cash to their families at home, and other fantastic nuggets of wisdom. I might have to start tracking Tancredoisms a little more closely.