Posted on 01/20/2011 5:32:23 AM PST by WilliamHouston
Colorado is one of the many states that will be tackling illegal immigration this year.
The Kentucky Senate and Mississippi Senate have already passed Arizona-style immigration laws. The Colorado Senate is poised to consider a similar bill.
Yesterday, Sen. Kent Lambert of Colorado Springs introduced an Arizona-style immigration law in the Colorado Senate. A 2006 law already requires Colorado police to report to ICE anyone they arrest for other crimes and suspect of being an illegal alien. Lambert's bill goes a step further and specifically allows police to arrest illegal aliens for the crime of being in our country illegally.
In effect, Colorado would be empowered to enforce federal immigration law, which would make quite a difference in a Western state where illegal immigration is a serious problem.
Unfortunately, the chances of this bill becoming law in the Centennial State are dim at best. In the 2010 midterm elections, Democrat John Hickenlooper defeated Tom Tancredo to become Governor of Colorado. Democrats also control the Colorado Senate, 20 to 15.
Republicans control the Colorado House where Lambert's bill has a greater chance of passage. Its most likely fate is dying an unceremonious death in a party line vote in a Democratic committee in the Colorado Senate
Still, it is important to force Democratic state legislators in Colorado to cast that fateful vote. Immigration will likely be a hot issue in 2012.
If an Arizona-style immigration law fails to pass the Colorado state legislature this year, as seems likely, there are efforts already underway to go through the initiative process and get it on the 2012 ballot. A majority of Coloradans support Arizona-style immigration reform and would be inclined to vote for the measure.
We have another cause for concern in Colorado.
As in Maryland, a Democratic state legislator is expected to make a push for a Colorado version of the DREAM Act which would grant in-state tuition to illegal aliens. In 2009, a similar bill failed in the Colorado Senate and Democrats now have a smaller majority to work with there. Republicans in the Colorado House would also likely kill the bill.
We are looking at a stalemate in Colorado for the next two years which both restrictionists and amnesty supporters having the power to block any controversial legislation coming from the other side. This is not unlike the situation we are facing in Washington where Republicans control the House while Democrats remain in control of the Senate.
If Tancredo had won the governorship and Republicans had managed to carry just five state senate seats, Colorado would be among the other states enacting restrictionist immigration reform this year. Elections really do have consequences.
Elsewhere, our prospects are brighter.
Gov. Le Page of Maine has signed an executive order that requires state agencies to check the immigration status of applicants for social services. Gov. Rick Scott of Florida has signed an executive order that brought E-Verify to the Sunshine State.
South Carolina, Georgia, Texas, Virginia, Indiana and numerous other states in the South and West are considering Arizona-style immigration laws. The South Carolina Senate could pass such a law any day now.
If and when they do, YWC readers will hear about it here first. We are closely monitoring these bills and the many others coming from our opposition.
Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.
Hickenlooper declared Denver a sanctuary city years ago.
He will never protect the sovereignty of Colorado never mind the huge budget deficit.
They are broke but are about to give illegals a break with instate tuition. Next they’ll be getting jobs in Hick’s restaurant chain. Rock Bottom.
One of his employees ( an illegal ) has already murdered a Denver police officer working security at a baptism party.
Be getting, hell you can bet they have been working in the back for a very long time.
Just go over the Avon, Edwards, Gypsum and Eagle trailer parks and “low income” housing areas and you could round up a huge batch of “wetbacks” on any given evening.
That was done by his predecessor Wellington Webb; Denver Executive Order 116 signed in 1998. Chickenlooper has steadfastly denied, despite evidence to the contrary, that Denver is a sanctuary city.
Ping!
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