Denver Post

Tancredo rails against Americans voting in Mexico

By Washington and the West

July 3, 2006

Washington — Rep. Tom Tancredo added sparks to an otherwise quiet congressional week, criticizing Americans who voted in last weekend’s Mexican election.

“Dual citizenship and dual voting undermine the foundations of society and ought to be prohibited,” said Tancredo, reacting to a report on NPR’s Morning Edition. “The only elections that American citizens ought to be voting in are American ones.”

Yet James A. McCann, a professor of political science at Purdue University who studied the voting patterns of Mexican-Americans, said there was little correlation between a person’s dual citizenship and their level of American patriotism.

“There is no evidence that Mexican-born individuals in the U.S. grew less interested in American politics if they were drawn into the recent Mexican campaigns,” he said. “My research shows a positive correlation between following politics in Mexico and taking part in American civic life.”

This is the first national election in Mexico that allowed Americans with dual citizenship to participate. More than 30,000 Mexican-Americans trekked across the Southern border to vote or cast absentee ballots, according to several news reports.

Tancredo expressed similar sentiments last year after The Washington Post reported that American citizens were allowed to vote in the Iraqi election if they had Iraqi-born fathers.

The Colorado Republican said he felt compelled to comment because of the current July 4th holiday.

“It’s disappointing so many people would choose to trivialize their oath of citizenship during the week we celebrate the birth of America,” said Tancredo.