Tom Tancredo Hired Illegal Laborers to Renovate His McMansion

[one...two...tree 2,762]

By Max Blumenthal, AlterNet

When Republican Representative Tom Tancredo isn’t railing against the “scourge” of illegal immigration on the presidential campaign trail, he relaxes in the 1053 square foot basement recreation room of his Littleton, Colorado McMansion. There, he and his family can rack up a game of billiards on their tournament size pool table, play pinball, or enjoy their favorite movies in the terraced seating area of a home theater system. Tancredo, who dodged the draft during the Vietnam War by producing evidence that he suffered from mentally illnesses, especially likes entertaining his buddies with classic war movies.

“We have friends over and I have now shown Pearl Harbor about six times,” Tancredo boasted to the Rocky Mountain News about his 102-inch television. “But I mainly just show the attack scene because the sound is so good.”

When Tancredo hired a construction crew to transform his drab basement into a high-tech pleasure den in October 2001, however, he did not express concern that only two of its members spoke English. Nor did he bother to check the workers’ documentation to see if they were legal residents of the United States. Had Tancredo done so, he would have learned that most of the crew consisted of undocumented immigrants, or “criminal aliens” as he likes to call them. Instead, Tancredo paid the crew $60,000 for its labor and waited innocently for the completion of his elaborate entertainment complex.

During the renovation process, two illegal workers hired by Tancredo were alerted to his reputation for immigrant bashing. They went straight to the Denver Post to complain. Tancredo “doesn't want us here, but he'll take advantage of our sweat and our labor,” one of the workers complained to the Post on September 19, 2002. “It's just not right.”

The Post report momentarily threw Tancredo on the defensive. In a fiery speech soon after the story’s publication, Tancredo blamed his foibles on the INS. “I haven't the foggiest idea how many people I may have hired in the past as taxi drivers, as waiters, waitresses, home improvement people,” he boomed from the House floor. “I haven't the foggiest idea how many of those people may have been here illegally, and it is not my job to ask them.” Then defiance gave way to vitriol as the congressman dubbed undocumented immigrants, “the face of murder.”

Only days before the Post’s story appeared, Tancredo had personally reported an honor student profiled in the Denver Post to the INS because the 14-year-old was not a legal resident of the United States. The stunt forced the boy’s family to go into hiding. Fortunately for Tancredo, the ensuing revelations of his hiring of illegal labor fell below the radar of the national media, allowing his anti-immigrant crusade to proceed unabated.

Tancredo proceeded to organize over 90 anti-immigration House members into an informal but powerful caucus that has effectively prevented any non-enforcement related immigration legislation from reaching the President’s desk. His Team America PAC, which is chaired by right-wing pundit Bay Buchanan, has donated tens of thousands of dollars this election cycle to nativist candidates who hope to fill Tancredo’s caucus with new blood when he retires next year. Down on the border, Tancredo announced his support for the Minutemen, providing the anti-immigrant militia with a veneer of respectability while its pistol-packing members hunt for brown-skinned evildoers.

http://alternet.org/rights/69391/

[Jenn! 918]

Kind of like Al Gore and global warming, no?

Edited December 1, 2007 by Jenn!

[GabachaYucateca 0]

I wouldn't be surprised to see this rationalized as: well, it's not Tancredo's responsibility to check into the status of the workers, it's the contractors fault for hiring them.

Flipping hypocrite.

[Dan J 277]

If he is really agaisnt illegal immigration, maybe he should be asking everyone who works for him for their papers. Otherwise all his points turn into blah blah blah.

[Chica Yeyé 41]

Oh my oh my..... brother, I propose the one and only Dr. Hannibal Lecter for Prez and Agent Starling with her Gucci dress for First Ladeeeee. After all, he is insane and knows it , and she is in love with a psycho and knows it .... though maybe he himself could be an illegal.... nowhere in the 3 novels is there mention of his visa process...... .... or maybe Starling is now applying for his K-5677???????????

Edited December 1, 2007 by Len_and_Bren

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Kind of like Al Gore and global warming, no?

Well, as hypocrites get measured....I'd say this guy (Tancredo) deserves the Nobel Hypocrite Award.

Oh my oh my..... brother, I propose the one and only Dr. Hannibal Lecter for Prez and Agent Starling with her Gucci dress for First Ladeeeee. After all, he is insane and knows it , and she is in love with a psycho and knows it .... though maybe he himself could be an illegal.... nowhere in the 3 novels is there mention of his visa process...... .... or maybe Starling is now applying for his K-5677???????????

...and he has exquisite taste in Chianti and fava beans.

[Chica Yeyé 41]

Oh my oh my..... brother, I propose the one and only Dr. Hannibal Lecter for Prez and Agent Starling with her Gucci dress for First Ladeeeee. After all, he is insane and knows it , and she is in love with a psycho and knows it .... though maybe he himself could be an illegal.... nowhere in the 3 novels is there mention of his visa process...... .... or maybe Starling is now applying for his K-5677???????????

...and he has exquisite taste in Chianti and fava beans.

Ditto. Someone who does not have ketchup in his pantry is my kind of guy.... the psycho part is OK

[Peikko 1,575]

I am not so sure it is his place to check for legal status as such.

However, what is his place is to know that he is paying a reasonable price for the work to get done. If you buy 'goods from the back of a truck' you know you are paying too little and you are either going to be getting something that is fake (shoddy goods) or you are getting something illegal. From the sounds of it, he paid a lot less than the going market price for the services so alarm bells should have been ringing. He is a hypocrite of course.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

He is a hypocrite of course.

The anti-illegal-immigrant position itself is rife with contradictions.

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

Kind of like Al Gore and global warming, no?

PWNED!!!!!

[Sofiyya 1,687]

I am a resident of Colorado, and I, too, inhabit a McMansion in Littleton, a stone's throw from Tom Tancredo's. I have posted before about my dismay at the illegals who manicure this area, and do other work that I know Americans used to do. Tom is in the same position as many of us; the businesses who supply construction services take advantage of illegal labor to the detriment of Americans who did this kind of work for decades.

I have no doubt that the company that supplied the labor did so knowing Tom's stand on the issue, and may have even taken advantage of it. I agree with Tom regarding illegals, and I have for years, but it is difficult to avoid illegal labor because liberal bleeding hearts stand in the way of every attempt to drive it out, and employers love exploiting them (you liberals do know you support their exploitation by supporting their existance).

For those of you who do not live in Colorado, you may not be aware that illegal immigration is a hot button issue here because of the documented two-tier justice system it has created, how the governor, once Denver's DA, allowed illegal felons to walk by dumbing down their charges to the laughable "agricultural trespass", refused to involve ICE, and how the state is run as a santuary for law breakers. There are several horrendous murders by illegals, including a man who dragged his girlfriend behind a truck until her body was mutilated, several shootings of police officers by illegals, and a slew of hit and runs by illegals afraid to get caught.

Those immigration elitist among you who do not believe in the rule of law and choke back tears for those who break and enter, then demand rights seem to be untouched by the mayhem committed by illegals in some communities. You apparently can afford to scoff and make fun of others. However, there is hypocrisy to go around and it touches you too in your cheerleading of corrupt employers and law breaking aliens.

A liberal is just a conservative who hasn't been mugged yet.

Edited December 1, 2007 by Green-eyed girl

[Fandango 1,439]

I think there's something missing from the story....did Tom hire the people directly, or was he dealing with a contractor who hired the illegals without Tom's knowledge?

There IS a difference.

Btw...what's with all the 'mc' whatnot? Ok, so Shepard is 'McDreamy' and the other one's 'McSteamy'....but unless either of them worked at McDonalds or either of them had names involving 'Mc'....I don't get the connection. Now, McMansion?

Someone, splain pls!

[Peikko 1,575]

Oh dear, poor guy, he's a victim of the evil web of the devil contractors. That's good, that's really good.

Tell me, are there really no legitimate contractors in colorado, or are they simply more expensive?

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Oh dear, poor guy, he's a victim of the evil web of the devil contractors. That's good, that's really good.

Tell me, are there really no legitimate contractors in colorado, or are they simply more expensive?

In Jersey, they're much more expensive. Like 3x.

I think there's something missing from the story....did Tom hire the people directly, or was he dealing with a contractor who hired the illegals without Tom's knowledge?

There IS a difference.

Btw...what's with all the 'mc' whatnot? Ok, so Shepard is 'McDreamy' and the other one's 'McSteamy'....but unless either of them worked at McDonalds or either of them had names involving 'Mc'....I don't get the connection. Now, McMansion?

Someone, splain pls!

Cookie cutter mansions, mass-manufactured with poor quality materials. At least that's the origin of the term.

[Peikko 1,575]

So, in other words, if it's cheap, you 'know' it's gotta be just a little dodgy?