Washington – With the Senate poised to take up immigration legislation, Rep. Tom Tancredo has boarded a mobile home and is touring several states to whip up support for his get-tough border-security views.
Calling it the “Secure America Now” tour, the Colorado Republican will argue that the Senate shouldn’t create a temporary-worker program for some immigrants.
Tancredo, a leader of the hardline approach to immigration policy, has speeches set in the Phoenix area today, followed by a rally and local-press interviews Friday in New Mexico and a rally Saturday in Reno, Nev.
He plans additional jaunts in coming weeks, heading to Kansas, Georgia, North and South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Michigan.
The immigration bill, passed late last year by the House, beefs up immigration laws but does not contain a guest-worker provision. The Senate is expected to take up immigration next month, and the bills under consideration contain guest-worker elements.
Tancredo has argued that a guest-worker program would lead to amnesty for some of the estimated 11 million immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally.
The tour is aimed at “imploring Americans to help stop Republican senators from passing amnesty and demand they pass an enforcement-only bill,” Tancredo said in a statement.
President Bush and many large businesses that employ immigrants favor some version of a guest-worker program as a boon to the economy.
The congressman has said he may run for president in 2008, but his spokesman said this tour is not a campaign swing.
Staff writer Anne C. Mulkern can be reached at 202-662-8907 or amulkern@denverpost.com.
