On November 26, 2006, Colorado Republican Tom Tancredo lit the match of controversy with seven small words.

“It has become a Third World country,” Tancredo said.

What is he referring to by “it”? That would be the city of Miami. According to this congressman someone could “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.”

Not long after the comment was made, news hit that these words were uttered, and the rumbles of unhappy Miami citizens could be heard all over the city.

“I thought it was an ignorant comment made by an ignorant man. We’re extremely diverse in Miami, as far as culture goes, but that does not make us a Third World country. I think he said it because there are so many Hispanics here,” Victoria Collazo, eighth grader at Ransom Everglades, said.

Whether or not Tancredo said this because of our diversity is not known, but he did give several other reasons for these comments. He claimed, in an email to Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, that he based his words on the crime statistics of Miami. He mentioned in the email that the number of murders in Miami-Dade had recently reached 200 this year.

Though it should be noted that in New York the murder statistics reached a little over 874 in 2005, and in Chicago they reached 448 in 2005, and in L.A. they reached 489.

Another reason he gave is uncontrolled immigration.

“The nature of America can be changed by uncontrolled immigration,” Tancredo said.

Tancredo’s upsetting comments even drew the attention of Miami’s Republican Representative, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. Her first reaction being he is “flat out wrong” as quoted by the Miami Herald.

“I invite my friend, Tom, to visit beautiful Miami, my hometown, and experience firsthand our hospitality. Come on Down, Tom, the water’s fine!” Ros-Lehtinen said.

Both a classy and direct answer, Ros-Lehtinen extended the invitation offering to pay his trip and stay. Unfortunately Tancredo never accepted the invitation.

Miami citizens were so angered by these remarks that a web search will expose countless blog pages where bulletins are written by people all over expressing their discontent with the disrespect shown for the city.

“Tancredo not only views the world through a lens that not only is cracked, but also racist,” Bill Menezes, Miamian, said.

That is one example of a posted comment on the internet from an infuriated Miami citizen.

Later on December 13, 2006 news hit about a second incident with Tancredo’s comments. He was scheduled to speak in the Rusty Pelican about immigration at the Rotary Club of Miami. The meeting was canceled based on the security issues there may have been. His reaction to the cancellation was as follows, quoted by the Miami Herald:

“I knew speaking your mind could be dangerous in Havana- I guess it’s equally dangerous to do so in Miami. Apparently, there isn’t much of a difference between the two anymore,” Tancredo said.

This again stirred more commotion.