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Posted: September 19, 2007 5:15 PM
Iowa High Schoolers Ponder: Who is Tancredo?
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Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., appeared before a high school government class in Remsen, Iowa, this past week, only to face many of the same questions the pundits in Washington have been asking.

The Rocky Mountain News reported that one student asked why he was still in the race when seemingly so few people know who he is. Tancredo, for his part, answered that money is the major issue when it comes to building name recognition.

He also penned an editorial for the Washington Times based on his efforts to draw attention to so-called sanctuary cities that he has said enable violent crime committed by illegal immigrants — such as the murders this summer of three college students in Newark, N.J. He invoked the Civil Rights movement, comparing past state and local officials who defied racial integration mandates to officials of today who do not obey federal immigration laws.

He has found another rallying cry in the DREAM Act, measures providing the children of illegal immigrants access to tuition benefits and legal status included in a defense authorization bill in the Senate. Tancredo blasted the proposal, singling out Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., for “piggy backing amnesty legislation onto a defense bill.”

“Using a military bill — when we have troops in the field — as a vehicle for trying to sneak these kinds of unpopular measures by the public would be a terrible mistake. Providing amnesty or taxpayer-funded benefits is bad enough — but attempting to pass such measures on the backs of the military would be perhaps the most cynical attempt at parliamentary gimmickry in recent history. The American public and the military deserve better,” Tancredo said in a statement.

Tancredo has a call-in event to voters in Columbia, S.C. on Thursday. Friday he is expected to appear at an Eagle Council event in St. Louis, followed by events in New Hampshire over the weekend.