RALEIGH, N.C. — Retired Congressman Tom Tancredo (R-CO) is visiting North Carolina and will speak on the issues of illegal immigration, Amnesty, and in-state tuition for illegal aliens on Tuesday April 14 from 6:30 to 8:30 PM at the UNC Chapel Hill Campus’s Bingham Hall room 103.

“Congressman Tancredo has been one of the leading voices in America speaking out for secure borders and immigration enforcement,” said William Gheen of ALIPAC who plans to attend the event. “It is significant he will speak on the issue of in-state tuition for illegals because the defeat of HB 1183 here in NC in 2005 set off a series of defeats for such legislation nationally.”

William Gheen and Americans for Legal Immigration PAC (ALIPAC) are inviting NC Lawmakers, press contacts, and concerned citizens to attend the Tancredo event which is being organized and sponsored by Youth for Western Civilization.

ALIPAC announced a national campaign to defeat in-state tuition for illegal immigrants bills in six states in March. The groups has since played a key roll in defeating this legislation in Colorado, Arkansas, and New Jersey. ALIPAC activists from across America are lobbying against a bill (HB 2939) in Oregon today.

“We want to show our support and our thanks to Tom Tancredo and Youth for Western Civilization for addressing these important issues that are of great interest to the American public,” said William Gheen. “The pro immigration enforcement side is winning again and again in the states because approximately 80% of Americans favor enforcement over Amnesty.”

For more information about this event or these issues please visit www.alipac.us

In PPP polls, the economy has gone from being the choice of 19 percent of voters in the state in October 2007 to 64 percent in the most recent poll last week.

CENTENNIAL, Colo. – When Tom Tancredo, the lightning-rod Colorado conservative, went to Congress a decade ago, he promised he wouldn’t disappear in Washington. He sure didn’t.

Tancredo made headlines clashing with Democrats and his fellow Republicans. He could be hard to figure even by his allies. The grandson of Italian immigrants, Tancredo founded the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus and achieved national recognition with aggressive, biting rhetoric against what he called out-of-control immigration and bilingual education.

At home, Tancredo lived six doors down from Columbine High School, but he resisted calls for stronger gun control after the nation’s deadliest high school shooting in 1999. He was born Catholic, but converted to the Evangelical Presbyterian Church and blasted Pope Benedict XVI for defending immigrants during a papal visit to Washington.

Tancredo was called racist for presidential campaign ads that suggested Latino immigrants are rapists and drug dealers. He once said Miami was like a Third World country because of its growing non-English-speaking population. He suggested America should threaten to destroy Islam’s holy city of Mecca in case of a future terrorist attack.

Tancredo’s poorly funded, longshot run for president ended in 2007, and he stayed quiet the rest of the campaign.

Now he’s retiring, maybe to run for Colorado governor in two years, maybe to join a right-leaning think tank, perhaps one like a suburban Denver organization he ran in the 1990s. An inflexible but at the same time gracious man, Tancredo, 62, knows he made plenty of enemies in Washington. It seems he wouldn’t have it any other way.

Tancredo recalls that when he ran for Congress in 1998, he repeatedly made one promise: “I guarantee you this, if you send me there, I’m not going to just take up space. You’re going to know there’s someone there, and he’s gonna be loud and somewhat boisterous.”

Tancredo grinned. “And I think I’ve lived up to that promise.”

His refusal to go along with the crowd didn’t win him any plum committee assignments or top billing on major legislation. But it won him a measure of respect, even from those who disagreed with him.

“When he found out he couldn’t work within the system to establish what was important for the country, he kind of abandoned that process and went straight to the American people and made that case there,” said Mike Coffman, Colorado’s Republican secretary of state who will succeed Tancredo in a district that includes Denver’s conservative southern suburbs.

Five years ago, Coffman refused to share a stage with Tancredo at an Iraq War rally in Denver, a protest by a veteran against a congressman who received a deferment from service during the Vietnam War.

Now Coffman says he’s looking to Tancredo for guidance.

“It is better to be an outsider than to compromise your principles,” Coffman said. “He set a course, to go beyond the Congress and to make a case directly to the American people, even

if that means alienating your colleagues, which he did.” Some say Tancredo’s unflagging interest in illegal immigration overshadowed his other work. Tancredo sponsored 2002’s Sudan Peace Act, and he worked to improve diplomatic relations with Taiwan – two arenas few of his constituents would identify with.

“He has great principles that I think were overshadowed by his work on the immigration issue,” said Rep. Doug Lamborn, a fellow Republican from a Colorado district just south of Tancredo’s.

Tancredo’s sharp words will leave him with a single-tone legacy, said Princeton University congressional historian Julian Zelizer.

“When he’s discussed, he’ll be used I think as one of the examples of what was wrong with the Republican party,” Zelizer said. “I think there’ll be a lot of people who will say his kind of politics didn’t sit well with a lot of Americans.”

Tancredo seems a little worried he’ll be remembered only for blasting illegal immigrants.

“There are a lot of issues beyond immigration that I want to deal with,” he said. He mentioned energy policy, what he sees as a need for more domestic exploration for fossil fuels.

But he was sanguine about his influence if he’d stayed on in Congress.

“I just didn’t feel that there was anything left I could do in the House,” he said.

It’s unclear what may be left for him politically, though he says he’s considering a 2010 run against Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter.

Last summer, Tancredo headlined a rally of the Minutemen anti-illegal immigration group at a Denver park during the Democratic National Convention. Just a couple dozen showed up.

Tancredo’s phone rings less now, and sitting in his suburban office amid empty bookshelves, he relaxes in a fleece zip-up pullover and seems to look forward most to catching more baseball games starring his grandsons. But he promises – again – he won’t disappear. And he takes pride in his decade in Congress.

“I’ve been able to move the debate in this country on a major issue. And that doesn’t happen very often, that a member of the House of Representatives can do such a thing,” he said. “I have been very, very lucky in that regard.”

Congratulations, Mr. President-elect. Take a moment to relax and savor your victory – but not too long. There already are plenty of pressing matters piling up in your in-box:
 
ECONOMY: This is problem No. 1. The nation is in the midst of the greatest economic crisis since the 1930s. Unemployment now stands at 6.1 percent, and economists predict it could go as high as 7.5 percent in 2009. Consumers are pessimistic about the future and cutting back on borrowing and spending, the lifeblood of America’s economy. A painful recession is looming and in many parts of the country it already has landed with a sickening thud.

The good news? Congress has come up with $700 billion to bail out the sinking financial system by buying toxic mortgages. The bad news? Everybody wants some of the money and the program is rapidly changing to dole out money in unexpected directions. Shifting gears, the government decided to buy stakes in banks. Automakers and the insurance industry are clamoring for help. Others are, too. Many Democrats want Congress to pass another economic stimulus bill. Americans already have lost trillions of dollars in investments, savings and college accounts. What’s your move?

ENERGY: You’ve promised to move quickly to deal with the country’s energy problems and reduce U.S. dependence on Persian Gulf oil. But oil prices have plummeted and the political will to act may be waning as well. Getting agreement from Congress, where Democrats and Republicans have long-standing differences on the best approach, won’t be easy.
  
There are sharp divisions over offshore oil drilling and precious little federal money available to help develop alternative energy sources such as wind and solar. Increasing use of nuclear power would require finding a way to deal with nuclear waste, a politically volatile issue. You’ve said the government needs to act quickly to address climate change; the hard part will be working out the details with Congress for a plan to cap carbon dioxide and other greenhouse emissions.

FOREIGN POLICY: Iraq and Afghanistan may get most of the attention, but there are a host of other pressing foreign policy issues. At the top of your agenda is Iran’s nuclear program. While Iran denies trying to build a bomb, most experts say that’s the goal and your pressing task is to choose an option to stop Iran. Diplomacy with economic and political concessions remains the preferred approach. But there is the issue of whether to threaten Iran, either implicitly or explicitly.

U.S. policy on Pakistan needs retooling. Generous aid and warm embraces have not eliminated Osama bin Laden and other al-Qaida leaders thought to be hiding in frontier regions. U.S. decisions are pending on whether to expand U.S. attacks in those areas and whether to support the government as it moves ahead on reconciliation with some militants.

Russia, once on a promising path to democracy, has retreated somewhat. Apart from domestic crackdowns on the press and other hardline tactics, Russia has taken steps to revive its influence in Ukraine and other former Soviet republics and is in a tense standoff with Georgia on the future of two breakaway provinces. The question is whether a way can be found to restrain Russia while retaining its vital support on Iran’s and North Korea’s nuclear programs.

Pyongyang has reached a tentative agreement to get rid of its nuclear weapons and capabilities in return for economic and political concessions from Asia and the West. However, it continues to zigzag on tough terms for outside inspections. A careful eye must be kept on whether North Korea backtracks on its commitments, obtained with promises of economic assistance.

In the Middle East, a pause is in order while Israel sorts out formation of a new government. But even before that is accomplished, decisions are needed on how much to intervene in the Arab-Israeli dispute, including whether to appoint a special U.S. mediator, and whether to outline a U.S. framework for a settlement with the Palestinians.

GLOBAL FINANCES: World leaders will meet Nov. 15 in Washington to address the global financial crisis – the first in a series of summits to address what could be a long and deep economic downturn. The first meeting will focus on the underlying causes of the crisis and the principles that should guide any reforms. President Bush will play host for the meeting, but the White House is promising to seek input from the president-elect.

GUANTANAMO BAY: There are about 250 detainees at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba. The current defense secretary and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff both want to see the detention center shut down, and it was a rare area of agreement on the presidential campaign trail, too. The hard part will be making it happen. Where to send the prisoners? How to try them? And how to shut down the Gitmo center itself?
 
HEALTH CARE: 45 million Americans don’t have health insurance, and expectations that coverage can be broadly expanded were stoked by both sides in the presidential campaign. Now comes the time to act. But history has shown that interest groups and patients become more wary of overhauling the system once they learn the details and potential trade-offs of a specific proposal. And the financial crisis made significant changes even more unlikely because any proposal will be costly.
  
HOME FORECLOSURES: Each day from July through September, more than 2,700 Americans lost their homes in foreclosure. That number, up from 1,200 a day a year ago, is a sign that the mortgage industry and government programs have done little to help troubled homeowners. The mortgage market’s troubles have proved to be far more serious and intractable than most in government or the private sector had predicted a year ago. All eyes are on Washington to see if the government can craft a fix.

INTERROGATION: The war on terrorism continues, and that means more prisoners and more interrogations. The military has its own set of rules restricting how interrogations can be carried out. But what rules should govern CIA interrogations? Will waterboarding be on the list? The technique – which critics liken to torture – remains an option for the agency, according to its chief, but has not been exercised since 2003.

IMMIGRATION: Now that the voting’s over, pressure to revisit immigration reform will build quickly from Latino supporters, immigration groups and some business interests. Larger Democratic majorities could help to move a bill through Congress, but those majorities will be built, in part, with Democrats from conservative districts who are wary of going too far. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said Democrats may have to give up some of their priorities in immigration reform to get an agreement, such as giving illegal immigrants a path to citizenship.

KATRINA FAMILIES: By March 1, you will need to find homes for as many as 11,600 families who were displaced after the 2005 hurricanes. Temporary housing for these families expires at the end of February.

MEDICARE/MEDICAID: Both of these government programs face huge financial problems. The expense of delivering promised benefits under Medicare, the giant health care program for older Americans, is expected to rise much more quickly than tax revenue. And Medicaid’s growing strain on federal and state budgets is unlikely to abate over the coming decade as the cost of providing health care to the poor is expected to increase by 7.9 percent annually.

SOCIAL SECURITY: The venerable retirement security needs a fix. Currently, 34 million retirees and their dependents receive monthly benefit checks, as do 6 million survivors of deceased workers and 9 million disabled workers and their dependents. Government experts project the Social Security trust funds will begin paying out more than they collect in payroll taxes in 2017, and be exhausted in 2041.

TERRORISM: The threat of terrorism is an ongoing reality in the years since the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001. Government planners worry about a window of vulnerability in the first days and months of a new presidency. Adversaries may try to take advantage of the shift in administrations, and the president-elect must be prepared for an early test. There are countless details that come with facing the threat of terrorism. For one, the government must find a way for America’s police officers and fire fighters to talk to each other during disasters. It’s been more than seven years since the 9-11 attacks, and this problem has not been resolved.

TRANSITION: You have 77 days to put together a government. This is the first wartime presidential transition in 40 years, and the first in the age of terrorism anxieties that became a reality after the 9-11 attacks. By one count, there are 7,840 presidential appointee jobs to be filled, including 1,177 requiring Senate confirmation. Some recommended deadlines: Try to choose your Cabinet members by Christmas, and have them briefed and ready for confirmation hearings by about Jan. 10. Try to have 100 appointees in place by April 1 and 400 by August. Those are worthy, but ambitious goals: No president has been able to complete confirmation for more than about 25 Cabinet and sub-Cabinet appointees by April 1, or more than about 240 by its eighth month.
 
WAR: The United States is fighting two wars at once. There are 152,000 U.S. troops in Iraq and 32,000 in Afghanistan, where violence has escalated and American casualties are running higher than in Iraq. An immediate challenge: the U.N. resolution that governs the presence of U.S. troops in Iraq expires at the end of the year. The U.S. military has advised Iraqi authorities that it will have to shut down security and service operations in Iraq if the year ends without a security agreement or a renewed U.N. mandate for American forces. Then come the larger questions of when and how to draw down U.S. troops in Iraq, and how many more troops to send to Afghanistan.

RALEIGH, N.C.- The campaign for governor between Beverly Perdue and Pat McCrory will end in the same way it started – with allegations about illegal immigration.

Perdue’s campaign began running two radio ads Monday accusing McCrory of being soft on the issue. Perdue said she approved the ads because the Republican Governors Association had attacked her on the issue with a mailer that was addressed to her husband.

The narrator in one ad accuses McCrory of lying about her record. A man in another ad said “we’d be loco to vote for Pat McCrory.”

McCrory’s campaign manager Richard Hudson called the ad “an outrageous, personal and racist attack.”

A few days after the May primary, McCrory accused Perdue of failing to do enough about a state policy allowing illegal immigrants to attend community colleges.

A look at where Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain stand on a selection of issues:

ABORTION

McCain: Opposes abortion rights. Has voted for abortion restrictions permissible under Roe v. Wade, and now says he would seek to overturn that guarantee of abortion rights. Would not seek constitutional amendment to ban abortion.
Obama: Favors abortion rights.

AFGHANISTAN

McCain: Favors unspecified boost in U.S. forces.
Obama: Would add about 7,000 troops to the U.S. force of 36,000, bringing the reinforcements from Iraq. Has threatened unilateral attack on high-value terrorist targets in Pakistan as they become exposed, “if Pakistan cannot or will not act” against them.

CAMPAIGN FINANCE

McCain: The co-author of McCain-Feingold campaign finance law is running his general campaign with public money and within its spending limits. He urged Obama to do the same. He applied for federal matching funds for primaries but later turned them down so he could spend more than the limits. The Federal Election Commission belatedly approved his decision to bypass the primary funds, but rejected McCain’s claim that he needed no such approval.

He raised more than $160 million before having to stop to accept the $84 million in public money for the fall. McCain accepted primary campaign contributions from lobbyists.
Obama: The presidential campaign’s fundraising champion has brought in more than $450 million. He is raising private money for his general election, despite his proposal last year to accept public financing and its spending limits if the Republican nominee does, too. Obama refuses to accept money from federal lobbyists and has instructed the Democratic National Committee to do the same for its joint victory fund, an account that would benefit the nominee. Obama does accept money from state lobbyists and from family members of federal lobbyists.
CUBA

McCain: Ease restrictions on Cuba once U.S. is “confident thatthe transition to a free and open democracy is being made.”
Obama: Ease restrictions on family-related travel and on money Cuban-Americans want to send to their families in Cuba. Open to meeting new Cuban leader Raul Castro without preconditions. Ease trade embargo if Havana “begins opening Cuba to meaningful democratic change.”

DEATH PENALTY

McCain: Has supported expansion of the federal death penalty and limits on appeals.
Obama: Supports death penalty for crimes for which the “community is justified in expressing the full measure of its outrage.” As Illinois lawmaker, wrote bill mandating videotaping of interrogations and confessions in capital cases and sought other changes in system that had produced wrongful convictions.

EDUCATION

McCain: He is not proposing a federal voucher program that would provide public money for private school tuition, in contrast to his proposed $5 billion voucher plan in 2000. Only proposes expansion of District of Columbia’s voucher program. Sees No Child Left Behind law as vehicle for increasing opportunities for parents to choose schools. Proposes more money for community college education. 
Obama: An $18 billion plan that would encourage, but not mandate, universal pre-kindergarten. Teacher pay raises tied to, although not based solely on, test scores. An overhaul of No Child Left Behind law to better measure student progress, make room for non-core subjects like music and art and be less punitive toward failing schools. A tax credit to pay up to $4,000 of college costs for students who perform 100 hours of community service a year. Obama would pay for part of his plan by ending corporate tax deductions for CEO pay. Has backed away from his proposal to save money by delaying NASA’s moon and Mars missions.

ENERGY
McCain: Favors increased offshore drilling and federal money to help build 45 nuclear power reactors by 2030. Opposes drilling in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Proposed suspending the 18-cent a gallon federal gasoline tax but idea got no traction. Global warming plan would increase energy costs.
Obama: Now would consider limited increase in offshore drilling. Opposes drilling in Arctic reserve. Proposes windfall-profits tax on largest oil companies to pay for energy rebate of up to $1,000. Opposed suspension of the gas tax. Proposed releasing 70 million barrels of oil from Strategic Petroleum Reserve to boost supplies. Global warming plan would increase energy costs.

GAY MARRIAGE

McCain: Opposes constitutional amendment to ban it. Says same-sex couples should be allowed to enter into legal agreements for insurance and similar benefits, and states should decide about marriage. Supports the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which denies federal recognition of same-sex marriages and gives states the right to refuse to recognize such marriages.
Obama: Opposes constitutional amendment to ban it. Supports civil unions, says states should decide about marriage. Switched positions in 2004 and now supports repeal of Defense of Marriage Act, which denies federal recognition of same-sex marriages and gives states the right to refuse to recognize such marriages.

GLOBAL WARMING

McCain: Broke with President Bush on global warming. Led Senate effort to cap greenhouse gas emissions. Favors plan that would see greenhouse gas emissions cut by 66 percent by 2050.
Obama: Ten-year, $150 billion program to produce “climate friendly” energy supplies that he’d pay for with a carbon auction requiring businesses to bid competitively for the right to pollute and aimed at cutting greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent by 2050. Joined McCain in sponsoring earlier legislation that would set mandatory caps on greenhouse gas emissions. Increase federal fuel economy requirements beyond 35 mpg.

GUN CONTROL

McCain: Voted against ban on assault-type weapons but in favor of requiring background checks at gun shows. Voted to shield gun-makers and dealers from civil suits. “I believe the Second Amendment ought to be preserved – which means no gun control.”
Obama: Voted to leave gun-makers and dealers open to suit. Also, as Illinois state lawmaker, supported ban on all forms of semiautomatic weapons and tighter state restrictions generally on firearms.

HEALTH CARE

McCain: $2,500 refundable tax credit for individuals, $5,000 for families, to make health insurance more affordable. No mandate for universal coverage. In gaining the tax credit, workers could not deduct the portion of their workplace health insurance paid by their employers.
Obama: Mandatory coverage for children, no mandate for adults. Aim for universal coverage by requiring employers to share costs of insuring workers and by offering coverage similar to that in plan for federal employees. Says package would cost up to $65 billion a year after unspecified savings from making system more efficient. Raise taxes on wealthier families to pay the cost.

HOUSING
McCain: Open to helping homeowners facing foreclosure if they are “legitimate borrowers” and not speculators.
Obama: Tax credit covering 10 percent of annual mortgage-interest payments for “struggling homeowners,” scoring system for consumers to compare mortgages, a fund for mortgage-fraud victims, new penalties for mortgage fraud, aid to state and local governments stung by housing crisis, in $20 billion plan geared to “responsible homeowners.”

IMMIGRATION
McCain: Sponsored 2006 bill that would have allowed illegal immigrants to stay in the U.S., work and apply to become legal residents after learning English, paying fines and back taxes and clearing a background check. Now says he would secure the border first. Supports border fence.
Obama: Voted for 2006 bill offering legal status to illegal immigrants subject to conditions, including English proficiency and payment of back taxes and fines. Voted for border fence.

IRAN

McCain: Favors tougher sanctions, opposes direct high-level talks with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Obama: Initially said he would meet Ahmadinejad without preconditions, now says he’s not sure “Ahmadinejad is the right person to meet with right now.” But says direct diplomacy with Iranian leaders would give U.S. more credibility to press for tougher international sanctions. Says he would intensify diplomatic pressure on Tehran before Israel feels the need to take unilateral military action against Iranian nuclear facilities.

IRAQ

McCain: Opposes scheduling a troop withdrawal, saying latest strategy is succeeding. Supported decision to go to war, but was early critic of the manner in which administration prosecuted it. Was key backer of the troop increase. Willing to have permanent U.S. peacekeeping forces in Iraq.
Obama: Spoke against war at start, opposed troop increase. Voted against one major military spending bill in May 2007; otherwise voted in favor of money to support the war. Says his plan would complete withdrawal of combat troops in 16 months. Initially had said a timetable for completing withdrawal would be irresponsible without knowing what facts he’d face in office.

SOCIAL SECURITY

McCain: “Nothing’s off the table” when it comes to saving Social Security.
Obama: Would raise payroll tax on wealthiest by applying it to portion of income over $250,000. Now, payroll tax is applied to income up to $102,000. Rules out raising the retirement age for benefits.

STEM CELL RESEARCH

McCain: Supports relaxing federal restrictions on financing of embryonic stem cell research.

Obama: Supports relaxing federal restrictions on financing of embryonic stem cell research.

TAXES

McCain: Pledged not to raise taxes, then equivocated, saying nothing can be ruled out in negotiating compromises to keep Social Security solvent. Twice opposed Bush’s tax cuts, at first because he said they were tilted to the wealthiest and again because of the unknown costs of Iraq war. Now says those tax cuts, expiring in 2010, should be permanent. Proposes cutting corporate tax rate to 25 percent. Promises balance budget in first term, says that is unlikely in his first year.
Obama: Raise income taxes on wealthiest and their capital gains and dividends taxes. Raise corporate taxes. $80 billion in tax breaks mainly for poor workers and elderly, including tripling Earned Income Tax Credit for minimum-wage workers and higher credit for larger families. Eliminate tax-filing requirement for older workers making under $50,000. A mortgage-interest credit could be used by lower-income homeowners who do not take the mortgage-interest deduction because they do not itemize their taxes.

TRADE
McCain: Free trade advocate.
Obama: Seek to reopen North American Free Trade Agreement to strengthen enforcement of labor and environmental standards. In 2004 Senate campaign, called for “enforcing existing trade agreements,” not amending them.