Fred's record is not as strong.
Read below from a Washington Times story:
CBN NEWS: Thompson Now Officially Seeking Presidency: Some votes are likely to draw scrutiny, particularly a series of votes in the 1990s against cracking down on illegal aliens. Those include a 1995 vote against limiting services other than emergency care and public education to illegal aliens - he was one of just six senators to oppose that proposal - and a 1996 vote against creating an employer verification system to help businesses filter out illegal aliens who apply for jobs....
But on immigration, Mr. Thompson had several votes where he bucked the pack - and seemed to favor illegal aliens.
The most stark example was his 1995 vote on the welfare overhaul, when he voted to preserve illegal aliens' ability to receive federal benefits. He was one of just six senators to vote that way, joining four other Republicans and one Democrat.
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/225944.aspx
These are the Fred votes that Tancredo is talking about. He reviewed this record and chose Mitt.
It also says:
“An adviser to the campaign on immigration matters, who asked not to be named, said Mr. Thompson had concerns about how broadly the public-benefits provision was drawn. As for the employer verification system, the adviser said Mr. Thompson joined a majority of Republicans in the chamber in opposing it, with many of them thinking the new system would lead to a national ID card.”
I remember the uproar on the National ID here on FR. It would be kinda stupid to pass a law to check illegal immigration and have the unintended consequences of a national ID. That would be like one step forward, two steps back. Remember, we we’re in the Clinton admin at the time, and they were doing everything they could to get a national ID implemented.
There isn’t enough in the article about the welfare overhaul, so I’ll withhold judgement, but again it points to unintended consequences of a bad law to solve a legitimate problem.