Tom Tancredo.(REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE)(Biography)

"Reducing the national debt requires us to have some sort of fiscal discipline. There are a million programs ... that are far beyond the bounds of the Constitution."--T. Trancredo.

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More than any other political figure, Rep. Tom Tancredo has been responsible for pushing border security and the illegal-alien invasion to the forefront of national attention. While the top elected officials of both the Democratic and Republican parties were pandering to the ever-more audacious open-borders lobby, Congressman Tancredo was taking a different path: he was listening to the growing outrage from Middle America over the federal government's refusal to control our borders, and he was giving voice to that outrage in Congress, on talk radio, and on political stump speeches across the country.

In May 1999, soon after his election to Colorado's 6th Congressional District, Tancredo founded the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus. He soon showed that he was ready, able, and willing not only to take on the Clinton-type liberal Democrats on this issue, but his own party leadership as well, including President George W. Bush. Undeterred by the GOP leaders' efforts to marginalize him, Tancredo hammered away on the catastrophic economic, social, and national security costs of failed immigration policies. His opposition to the president's immigration stances earned him a telephone tongue lashing from Republican power broker and Bush adviser Karl Rove, who, Tancredo says, warned him "never to darken the door of the White House again."

The terror attacks of September 11, 2001 underscored the insanity of our immigration policies and sent many "immigrant rights" politicians running for cover. Tancredo's Immigration Caucus swelled to over 100 members and played a critical role in blocking efforts by President Bush and the Kennedy-McCain forces in Congress to pass amnesties for illegal aliens disguised as "comprehensive reform" bills.

As a 2008 presidential candidate, Tancredo has forced the immigration debate to the front burner and has caused the other Republican and Democratic candidates to move to the right on this issue. The congressman's presidential campaign website leaves no doubt that immigration reform is still his driving passion: it is listed as the first issue on his list of campaign issues. But it is not his only issue. Rep. Tancredo has accumulated solid ratings from organizations committed to the Second Amendment, the right to life, tax reform, and ...