Tancredo Slams Bush Over Immigration

Nashua, NH–Republican presidential candidate Rep. Tom Tancredo, of Colorado, said President Bush’s failure to enforce existing immigration laws is “despicable” and leading to a domestic crisis.

If elected, Tancredo, 61, said he’d ask Congress to require the withdrawal of Social Security taxes from all employee wages to make it easier for the federal government to track and deport illegal aliens.

“If we don’t like our immigration laws, if we think they are wrong, repeal them. If we don’t think they are wrong, enforce them,” Tancredo said during an interview with The Telegraph editorial board at Nashua High School South.

“Don’t keep ignoring our laws, which this president has been doing, which is despicable,” Tancredo said.

To Tancredo, Bush’s failure to crack down more on employers who employ undocumented workers and to maintain border security amounts to a high crime.

“If he could be impeached for dereliction of duty, a bill could be brought. Unfortunately, that is not grounds.”

“He has avoided dealing with this issue to a point where we are at a crisis, I believe, and it is just unconscionable.”

A six-term congressman, Tancredo said illegal immigration has become the centerpiece of his campaign, due to the role it’s played in rising health-care costs, availability of jobs and crime.

“It is the most serious domestic policy we face, it has enormous ramifications for America, legal or illegal immigration, period, because of the lack of assimilation that has occurred,” Tancredo said.

Employers need to increase the wages of the low-skill jobs instead of hiring illegal immigrants, Tancredo said. He insisted the private economy cost for such a move would be lower than the costs of educating and caring for those who are here illegally.

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