Politicians have a habit of making insensitive remarks, then claiming their words were misconstrued or taken out of context.
Lately, Colorado pols have been on a roll. It seems to be open season on Mexicans.
Two weeks ago, it was U.S. Rep. Bob Beauprez, who said it would take a long time to extradite a suspected cop-killer from Mexico because he knows “exactly what Mexican time is.”
People were outraged. Beauprez seemed defensive at first, telling a Denver Post reporter, “That term is used in Mexico all the time. It means ‘Time to kick back, or take it easy.’ ”
But when Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey lashed out, saying those comments could hurt the extradition process, Beauprez offered the backhanded, “If somebody’s seriously offended, then I apologize.”
Two weeks after that, it was Sen. Wayne Allard’s turn in the spotlight.
In a May 27 Greeley Tribune article, Allard stated: “The more illegal immigration you have, the more crime you have.” He went on to tell reporter Brady McCombs that illegal immigrants bring prostitution and drug trafficking with them.
The sweeping allegation went unnoticed for a month – even by Allard’s own staffers, whose job it is to make sure he is quoted accurately.
This week, the news article and a subsequent editorial made the e-mail rounds in Denver. The state Democratic Party seized on it and sent out a news release demanding that Allard apologize.
When I spoke to Allard on Tuesday morning, he said the quote was taken out of context. He says he was speaking of “coyotes,” the people who smuggle illegal immigrants into the country. Those are the people who create prostitution and traffic in drugs, he told me.
How industrious. Why just smuggle immigrants when you can be a pimp and a drug dealer too? Must be a new diversified business strategy that not even the FBI knows about.
We have to take Allard on his word that he was stereotyping the coyotes, not illegal immigrants, even though it’s curious that no one from his staff contacted the Greeley Tribune about it until after I asked Allard why he hasn’t asked for a correction.
Editor Chris Cobbler told me McCombs is “adamant” that his story was accurate and the comments were put in context.
“He (McCombs) said there was no discussion about human traffickers,” Cobbler said. Allard didn’t ask for a correction.
I asked Allard why he brought up the issue of smuggling people into the country for a story about a congressional proposal to offer amnesty to illegal immigrants.
“We were talking about illegal immigrants in general,” Allard said. “I went on to explain that if we tolerate illegal immigrants coming in, it creates other problems. Human traffickers come in. The point I’m making is this is a big problem, and we need to address illegal immigration in this country.”
OK, so let’s get to it.
If the illegal immigration debate seems so maddeningly tedious to so many of us, it’s because those who are anti-illegal immigrants keep offering un-realistic solutions like, “Send them all back,” and the pro-immigrant groups counter with, “Our economy needs these hardworking people.”
In the back and forth, sometimes people slip because the culture of hate says it’s acceptable to vilify illegal immigrants as a bunch of scary, shadowy figures.
And with all of that name-slinging and ad-hominem attacks (“Illegal immigrants lower American wages!” “They take jobs lazy Americans don’t want!”), real solutions about how to fix our immigration laws don’t get the attention they deserve.
And isn’t that worth talking about?
Cindy Rodríguez’s column appears Tuesdays and Thursdays in Scene. Contact her at 303-820-1211 or crodriguez@denverpost.com.
