SHOCKING NEWS: Tom Tancredo’s Grandparents were Immigrants!

What would this blog do without Tom Tancredo?   Of course, despite our headline above, we are not shocked that both sets of his grandparents were immigrants from Italy.  The same is true for many Americans.  But, it does seem odd for Tancredo to be such a zealot on immigration when it was not that long ago that his family immigrated to the United States — “legally,” I am sure he and his defenders might emphasize (which might — or might not — be true; we do not have that information).  For commentary how, early in the twentieth century, many Italian immigrants were feared and loathed (and classified as biologically and culturally inferior — many of us would call that racist today) in much the same way that Mexican immigrants are today, see the Reason.com story here.

For the Tancredo family tree, see here.

This is part of an occasional series on the family immigration histories of the Presidential candidates.

KJ