Justice & Law Quote by Tom Tancredo

Tancredo’s line is a classic political feint: it sounds like a hardline immigration statement, but its real target isn’t the border crosser - it’s the boss. By shifting the verb from “crossing” to “hiring,” he reframes “illegal immigration” as a demand-side market problem, not just a law-and-order morality play. That move is rhetorically savvy because it punctures a familiar bit of American hypocrisy: we perform outrage at undocumented workers while quietly relying on the cheap labor their status makes possible.

The intent is twofold. First, it lets him argue for tougher enforcement while appearing pragmatic, even technocratic: enforce existing law, reduce the incentive, “eliminate the problem.” Second, it’s a pressure point inside conservative politics. Employer sanctions have long been the inconvenient cousin of border crackdowns - disruptive to agriculture, construction, hospitality, and the donor ecosystem. Tancredo’s subtext is a dare: if you’re serious, go after the people who sign the checks. If you’re not willing to do that, your outrage is theater.

The phrasing also reveals a strategic vagueness. “Go a long way” is an escape hatch, and “eliminating the problem” treats immigration like a leak you can seal rather than a structural feature of a global labor economy. Context matters: Tancredo rose during the 2000s as an immigration hawk, when post-9/11 security politics, rising demographic anxiety, and battles over enforcement (E-Verify, raids, employer penalties) were reshaping the GOP. The quote works because it weaponizes an uncomfortable truth: enforcement is only radical when it reaches upward.