Mexico Consul General calls for repeal of Colorado law

Summit Daily News ^ | March 9, 2002 | Dennis Webb

[sarcasm]

GLENWOOD SPRINGS — Mexico’s Consul General for Colorado called Thursday for the repeal of a state law prohibiting undocumented residents from obtaining driver’s licenses.

Consul General Leticia Calzada, who serves a multi-state region that includes Colorado, called the restriction “very tough for them and for me, too.”

Undocumented residents are being cited for minor offenses that “are clogging courthouses in many counties because these Mexicans need to drive,” she said.

On Feb. 14, the Colorado Senate voted down a bill that would have granted driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrant workers who do not have a Social Security number, but who could provide an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number issued by the IRS.

Calzada’s comments came during a meeting with educators at Colorado Mountain College’s Glenwood Springs campus Thursday.

At that meeting, she also called for a new U.S./Mexican accord on immigration, and promised to serve as a resource for educators confronting challenges with the influx of Mexicans in local schools.

An immigration agreement is needed “to put order in this disorder” involving undocumented Mexicans in the United States, she said.

For the sake of the United States, and Colorado in particular, the issue of undocumented Mexicans must be resolved, she said.

“They are providing labor and energy to the economy of Colorado,” she said, adding that she finds Mexican workers in every resort-area hotel and restaurant she visits.

“Without Mexicans, Beaver Creek could not run,” she said.

An immigration agreement, Calzada said, also would be good for Mexico, “because Mexico needs some time — I don’t know, maybe 15 or 20 years — to improve its economy, its situation.”

In response to concerns from some Americans that Mexicans threaten to overpopulate the United States, Calzada assured her audience that Mexico wants its citizens to find good work at home.

“We would like to see the people of Mexico living in Mexico,” she said.

Mexico President Vicente Fox considers the Mexicans living in the United States “the forgotten ones” — economic exiles who deserve more attention, Calzada said.

[Gatún(CraigIsaMangoTreeLawyer)]

Mexico’s Consul General for Colorado called Thursday for the repeal of a state law prohibiting undocumented residents from obtaining driver’s licenses.

As we say here in Panama, "que huevos!!!"

[supercat]

How about allowing illegal aliens to get driver's licenses but having someone from INS pick them up as they leave the DMV?

[sarcasm]

Bush will probably put a federal amnesty bureau next door to the DMV.

[ThinkLikeWaterAndReeds]

Good idea! And brand their forheads before returning them to Mexico. Maybe then a "shoot branded forheads on sight" law could be insituted to replace the drivers liscense law repealed.

[Dane]

Wow sars, this thread has been up for one whole hour and where are the doom and gloomers?

[sarcasm]

I'm sure that you approve of a foreign official attempting to dictate American law. If Bush had any guts, he would declare her persona non gratia for this statement.

[Dane]

I'm sure that you approve of a foreign official attempting to dictate American law. If Bush had any guts, he would declare her persona non gratia for this statemen

Oh yeah right something on page 23 of a local paper is the end of the republic.

Give me a break. I know your game. You serach endlessly for any story that has anything to deal with immigration and try to whip up hysteria.

[sarcasm]

You would defend Bush if he declared himself dictator.

[PatrioticAmerican]

Illegals do not need a driver's license to get to work as they are NOT to work in Colorado!

P.S. Welfare here is not so easy to get. Unlike California, we do not look the other way. Some do, but they are fewer these days. People here are sick of the illegals.

[Dane]

You would defend Bush if he declared himself dictator.

Rather be under the dictatorship of Bush, than the dictatorship of Buchanan.

[PatrioticAmerican]

Can I go Mexico as an illegal and get a Mexican driver's license? Bet not.

[sarcasm]

Dane shows his true colors - he doesn't believe in the Constitution.

[HennepinPrisoner]

Undocumented residents are being cited for minor offenses that “are clogging courthouses in many counties because these Mexicans need to drive,” she said.

The only direction these Mexican criminals should be driving is South.

[let freedom sing]

Undocumented residents are being cited for minor offenses that “are clogging courthouses in many counties because these Mexicans need to drive,”

what she means is, it's ok for citizens to follow the laws of our country, but non-citizens should be exempt?

[HennepinPrisoner]

Ping---and if anyone knows how to Ping the "immigrant" list, please do so. I don't even know how to get to the list!

[Free the USA]

Check the Bump List folders for articles related to and descriptions of the above topic(s) or for other topics of interest.

[the_daug]

Illegal Mexicans add great economic benefit to this
country. If the INS were allowed to they could shut down
the borders. The INS shut down the packing plants here in
Nebraska just by camping out at the plants checking
status. A couple a weeks of that drove the price of
cattle so low the farmers threw a fit and got the INS to back off.
Be careful what you wish for.

[INSENSITIVE GUY]

These illegals coming to the U.S.for work are full of it.As they sit on their front porches ALL THE WORK WILL COME TO THEM!If they are having problems down there it's their own fault,they can change their government same as we do.If they don't love their own country any better than that,WHAT MAKES ANYONE THINK THEY WILL LOVE AMERICA ANY MORE?

[Vast Buffalo Wing Conspiracy]

Hey now. Why don't we register those illegals to vote, while they are getting their drivers licenses? Surely Colorado has a dem-sponsored motor-voter law on the books, yes?

While we're at it, let's just submit every new law to the Mexican Embassy first, to see if it passes muster. We wouldn't want to offend our new masters, now, would we?

I guess this means that in future we won't have to wait for a state or federal court to invalidate our laws; we can just let the Mexicans do it for us. So much more efficient, and it saves on the costs of litigation, too.