Three Points, Ariz. – After spending time along the U.S.-Mexico border with Minutemen on the lookout for undocumented immigrants, Colorado legislators said they want to help fund the patrol’s efforts with Colorado tax dollars.
“It concerns me that we (and) other states are not coming to their aid in some way, either with funds or by trying to energize people to volunteer,” said David Schultheis, a Colorado Springs Republican. “I feel like they are down here all alone.”
Schultheis and fellow Republican Reps. Bill Crane of Arvada and Jim Welker of Loveland have been in Arizona since Monday to learn more about border issues. They are meeting with Arizona lawmakers who pushed through Proposition 200, which prohibits undocumented immigrants from receiving government services and benefits.
The lawmakers’ trip into the desert with the Minutemen, armed civilians who monitor the border, has not gone unnoticed in Colorado.
The trio are undergoing an “internship in racism,” Leslie Moody, president of the Denver Area Labor Federation, told a group of protesters Wednesday at the Colorado Capitol. “Their actions and words are hateful and inhumane, and they make no fiscal sense,” she said.
Mark Silverstein, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado, said his organization is looking closely at immigration legislation suggested by the lawmakers.
“When people are here in this country, they are human beings and they have human rights,” Silverstein said. “They also have constitutional rights simply by being here.”
Schultheis is unfazed by the criticism, and the three legislators praised the Minutemen, saying that unless the border is sealed, the flow of illegal immigrants would not be stopped without the volunteers.
The Colorado contingent spent Tuesday night near the border, sitting quietly with patrols in the dark along routes known to be used by undocumented immigrants. Crane and Welker took a position in the back of a pickup along a river wash, peering into night scopes. They never saw any illegal crossings.
“We’ve got to seal the border, even if we have to use the military to do it,” Welker said.
Schultheis has teamed up with Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo and others to build support for an initiative similar to Arizona’s Prop. 200. The group also aims to propose legislation deputizing state patrol officers as immigration agents, prohibiting undocumented immigrants from purchasing homes and punishing businesses that hire them.
The legislators visiting Arizona say stronger border patrols will ultimately benefit Colorado because undocumented immigrants strain state services. Still, the legislators acknowledge, there are no studies or numbers that show what impact undocumented immigrants have on the state system.
Some of the trio’s colleagues have reservations about their actions and support for the Minutemen, said Rep. Mark Larson, R- Durango, who has co-sponsored some of Schultheis’ legislation.
Larson agrees with their claim that illegal immigration strains the state budget, but the legislators are putting their credibility at risk by associating with the Minutemen, he added.
“If they are going out with the Minutemen, they should not hold themselves as representatives of the Colorado legislature,” Larson said. “It’s a vigilante group.”
Challenging the lethargic process of immigration services and bolstering the Colorado budget are better policies to pursue, Larson said.
At the state Capitol protest in Denver, Polly Baca, former state legislator and executive director of the Latin American Research and Service Agency, chided the three legislators for “deserting” their posts to participate in a “hate” summit.
Flanked by representatives from the ACLU, American Friends Service Committee and Denver-based Jovenes Unidos, Baca said deterring undocumented workers from entering the U.S. would only harm the general labor industry.
“These legislators are choosing to ignore the difficult economic challenges we face in Colorado, and instead they are threatening to cause serious problems for our farming, tourism and construction industries,” Baca said.
Said Gabriela Flora, organizer for the American Friends Service Committee: “We need solutions that unite our community, not divide us.”
Schultheis, who joined Welker and Crane for another patrol with the Minutemen on Wednesday night, says his opponents are not seeing the real scope of the immigration problem.
When Schultheis returns to Colorado on Friday, he said, he plans to meet with fellow lawmakers to work on new legislation.
“I foresee the same name-calling that has been done,” Schult heis said. “Those people are going to continue to whine, and we are going to win.”
Several groups are mobilizing to fight any initiative similar to Prop. 200.
Schultheis and his supporters should expect an intense political battle, said Estevan Flores, executive director of the Latino/a Research & Policy Center.
“Proposed legislation limiting services, education and employment is contrary to how the country was built,” he said.
Staff writer Manny Gonzales contributed to this report.
