Tancredo blasts N.Y. license plan

To label presidential hopeful Tom Tancredo as “anti-immigrant” is too easy. He has consistently criticized President Bush over his immigration policy, called members of the Minutemen Project “real heroes” and has used immigration as the main topic on the campaign trail.

Thus it should come as no surprise that Tancredo used an appearance in New York City to speak out against Governor Eliot Spitzer’s plan to provide driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants. Said Tancredo at a forum for local Republican legislators:

"I'm here today because the governor's proposals, if implemented, will affect not only the citizens of New York, but the citizens of all 50 states," he said.

"It also is an affront to the Congress of the United States, because he has declared war on the Real ID Act," Tancredo said, referring to the legislation passed in 2005 that set national standards for state driver's licenses.

"He is basically thumbing his nose at the universal acknowledgement of the need for more secure ID documents."

Despite the vitriol in the forum (i.e. equating illegal immigration with “terrorism”) not all the politicians present were pleased with Tancredo’s remarks:

“(New York Assemblyman James) Tedisco wants the whole world to know that this is a security problem and he supports legal immigration. He is a son of (Italian) immigrants and his ideas are not the same as Tancredo’s” said Juan Carlos Polanco- director of Tedisco’s New York City office.

Sources (English)- The Latin Americanist, New York Post, American Free Press, Nashua Telegraph

Sources (Spanish)- El Diario/La Prensa

Image- MSNBC