Thomas G Tancredo

Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.), a White House hopeful, said Thursday that the existence of the Congressional Black Caucus and other race-based groups of lawmakers amounted to segregation and should be abolished. "It is utterly hypocritical for Congress to extol the virtues of a colorblind society while officially sanctioning caucuses that are based on race," said Tancredo, who is most widely known as a vocal critic of illegal immigration.

Tom Tancredo is used to anger and hostility. But success is something else. So when the Senate buckled under a wave of popular protest and rejected an overhaul of the nation's immigration laws, Tancredo wasn't sure how people would respond. The five-term Republican congressman from Colorado is not just the hard-line face of immigration reform.

Republican presidential candidate Tom Tancredo on Monday unveiled a television ad depicting a hooded terrorist detonating a bomb inside a shopping mall, a message the Colorado congressman said he hoped would vault illegal immigration to its rightful place at the center of the campaign. Critics accused Tancredo of fear-mongering.

Republican Rep. Tom Tancredo, whose forceful opposition to illegal immigration vaulted him to national prominence, plans to announce he is abandoning his long-shot bid for the presidency, a person close to Tancredo said in Denver. The five-term Colorado congressman planned to make the announcement at a news conference in Des Moines today, the person said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak for Tancredo or his political campaign.

Immigrants in multicultural Miami had the final word Wednesday in a monthlong battle with Colorado Republican Rep. Tom Tancredo: \o7Adios.\f7 A speech by Tancredo to the Rotary Club of Miami scheduled for today was canceled after the Key Biscayne restaurant that hosts the group's weekly lunch meetings announced that the congressman critical of immigration was not welcome there.

Rep. Thomas G. Tancredo told a radio show host that the United States could "take out" Islamic holy sites, including Mecca, if terrorists attacked the country with nuclear weapons. Talk show host Pat Campbell asked the Littleton Republican how the country should respond if terrorists struck U.S. cities.

As night settles over the Capitol, Tom Tancredo is seated in his congressional office, smoking a fat cigar and nursing a plastic tumbler of scotch. The president is unhappy with him, the Colorado Republican says. So are GOP House leaders. One congressman, a California Republican who wants Tancredo run out of the party, is badmouthing him all over town. Tancredo exhales a billow of blue smoke. Life is good.

The phone rang and Carol Koeppen picked up. "Congressman Tancredo's office," she said. Pause. "I know you're furious," she replied gently. "A new party? You want to draft the congressman for president? I'll let him know." It was call No. 260 in fewer than two days. Angry voters were vowing to chuck their Republican Party memberships into the nearby South Platte River over President Bush's proposal Wednesday to allow millions of undocumented immigrants to work here legally for a period of time.

Once a leader of Colorado's term-limits movement, Republican Rep. Thomas G. Tancredo said Wednesday he's scrapping his pledge and will seek a fourth term. He cited what he called the ongoing threat posed by U.S. immigration policy. Tancredo said he does not think he is betraying voters. He noted he sent supporters a letter before the 2002 election saying he no longer felt bound by the term-limits pledge he made before his 1998 election.

A congressional advocate of curbs on immigration was criticized Thursday for using an "anti-Hispanic" prop at a news conference to denounce the widening acceptance of Mexican identification cards. Rep. Thomas G. Tancredo (R-Colo.) and several of his colleagues stood beside a large poster to dramatize their concern that more than 1 million IDs issued by Mexican consulates -- and accepted in this country by many local authorities and banks -- are a form of amnesty for illegal immigrants.