Manchester, N.H. – Presidential hopeful Tom Tancredo said Tuesday that he will work against fellow Republicans – among them rival John McCain – who support an immigration bill he considers a sellout.
The candidate said he is launching a petition drive and volunteer network to help voters campaign against senators who support the White House-backed immigration plan. The bill would provide a pathway to citizenship for the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants already in the U.S.
“We believe it is the worst piece of legislation that has come down the pike in a long time,” the Colorado congressman said at a news conference outside Republican Sen. Judd Gregg’s office in New Hampshire. “For a Republican to be talking about other Republicans, trying to take them on and defeat them in primaries, that’s a somewhat injudicious thing for me to do. But this is an issue that surpasses all the niceties that go along with political camaraderie that you develop.”
Tancredo said GOP senators should turn against the bill or expect well-funded challengers in primaries next year.
“The thing they are afraid of is the primary,” he said. “That will cost a lot of money, and when people run on an issue, a specific issue, that’s the dangerous primary.”
Gregg has said he won’t decide how to vote on the bill until he has seen all the details, including amendments he is pushing for a modified guest-worker program. But he responded immediately to Tancredo’s event in his parking lot.
“There are, unfortunately, people who wish to bury their heads in the sand by ignoring the threat our present dysfunctional system represents to our country, and who are using a jingoistic and demagogic approach of opposition to immigrants as a way to raise their own political visibility,” Gregg said. “Congressman Tancredo has chosen to align himself with this approach.”
Tancredo said his anti-illegal- immigration campaign would force him to take time away from his presidential campaign.
“I am going to certainly devote as much of my energy and my time and my resources as I can to killing this bill,” he said.
Tancredo announced his “Save America Campaign” hours before he and nine other GOP candidates were to participate in a debate. Among them, only McCain supports the legislation.
“This is a slap in the face to every American who has come here the right way,” Tancredo said. “It undermines the rule of law. It will destroy the Republican Party.”
