Rep. Tom Tancredo, the leader of the anti-illegal immigration faction in the U.S. House, spent a recent weekend at The Breakers in Palm Beach.Where to begin? Well, first, most of the "immigrants" here in Miami are here legally, a lot of them second- and third-generation descendants of refugees from Cuba and Haiti. Second, Miami is certainly not unique in having neighborhoods and enclaves where English isn't the dominant language -- places like Detroit, New York, Seattle, Minneapolis, Toledo, and Chicago have them. It so happens that those neighborhoods are Polish, German, Yiddish, Lebanese, Korean, Puerto Rican (which is American), and Swedish, among others. Apparently that's quaint, because I don't hear Rep. Tancredo complaining about those enclaves. But Miami, where there are lots of brown people speaking Spanish and Creole, well, send 'em all to the third world.
Ninety miles to the south, he found a symbol to bolster his belief that unfettered immigration is endangering the United States: Miami, he told a conservative online news site, "has become a Third World country."
In South Florida to attend Restoration Weekend, a gathering of conservative activists, the Colorado Republican, whose district includes suburbs of Denver, pointed to Miami as an example of how "the nature of America can be changed by uncontrolled immigration," the story says.
"Look at what has happened to Miami," the WorldNetDaily quotes Tancredo as saying in an interview. "It has become a Third World country. You just pick it up and take it and move it someplace. You would never know you're in the United States of America. You would certainly say you're in a Third World country."
[...]
Tancredo, who chairs the bipartisan House Immigration Reform Caucus and championed a fence along the border with Mexico, said Monday in an e-mail sent by his office that his comparison was based on crime statistics he believes "are deeply rooted in the immigration debate."
[...]
He noted in the e-mail that the number of homicides in the county recently reached 200 for the year. The number is actually a decrease from the 1980s.
"Moreover, the sheer size and number of ethnic enclaves devoid of any English and dominated by foreign cultures is widespread," Tancredo said in the statement. "Frankly, many of these areas could have been located in another country. And until America gets serious about demanding assimilation, this problem will continue to spread."
Apparently Mr. Tancredo hasn't been in Denver, either; there's quite a thriving immigrant community there, nor has he been to Albuquerque, which was -- HORRORS! -- founded by immigrants...except it was in the 16th century, when Mr. Tancredo's ancestors were still trying to figure out which end of Italy was up.
And to use a term you'd hear in one of the "enclaves" here in Miami, he's a putz.
