Republicans Wednesday declared their attempts to curb illegal immigration all but dead for the legislative session.
Democrats Tuesday night killed six GOP bills, sparking a partisan round of finger-pointing over who was more committed to real reform.
“They hope it’s behind them and that they can move on with their lives” now that the most aggressive Republican bills addressing illegal immigration have been killed, said Republican Assistant House Minority Leader Mike May of Parker. “We brought the bills. They didn’t. We brought them, and they killed them.”
Democrats say they still are working on proposals of their own and that the failed Republican bills did not make for good public policy.
Regardless, the issue is far from over for Coloradans. Former Democratic Gov. Dick Lamm and other members of a group called Defend Colorado Now are pursuing a November ballot question that asks voters to restrict government services for illegal immigrants.
A key part of the Defend Colorado Now sales pitch is that lawmakers have failed to address the impacts of illegal immigration, so citizens have to regulate it themselves.
“I can understand the Republicans’ criticism,” Lamm said. “I hope it’s premature, but they’ve certainly got a point, and I hope the Democrats prove it’s premature.”
Immigration reform was a top priority for minority GOP legislators going into the session. But the House State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee dealt their agenda a serious blow Tuesday night when it killed the meatiest of their proposals.
They included measures that would have required employers to more thoroughly check the immigration status of their workers and would have held them accountable for the criminal activity of illegal workers.
Democrats said Wednesday that the complaining Republicans were jumping the gun and failing to accept that their proposals exceeded the state’s resources and legal authority.
Two Republican bills passed in committee Tuesday and a third will soon, they emphasized. There are also Republican-sponsored immigration bills pending consideration by the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Additionally, Democrats promise they are working on what they describe as a more practical approach to reform.
“Just because we don’t agree with them 100 percent doesn’t mean we’re abdicating our responsibilities,” said House Majority Leader Alice Madden, D-Boulder.
Madden is working on a resolution that in its current form acknowledges that state and federal governments “must work together” on the issue. It also calls for more federal funding for programs affected by immigration.
A likely Democratic-sponsored bill in the works would go after the so-called coyotes who smuggle illegal workers into the state, said House Speaker Andrew Romanoff, D-Denver. Another would address civil-rights concerns that might arise in an atmosphere of increased focus on immigrants, he said.
Though he initially thought those bills would have been ready by this week, that was “overly ambitious,” Romanoff said Wednesday.
Despite his skepticism after Tuesday’s committee hearing, Mike McGarry of the Colorado Alliance for Immigration Reform said a coyote bill could be a strong move by Democrats.
“If there were something about seriously criminalizing coyote work, and it has serious enforcement teeth, then yeah, that would be something that would be good,” he said.
A measure introduced last week by Denver Democratic Rep. Mike Cerbo encourages increased enforcement of employment laws that could result in penalties for employers who hire illegal workers and don’t pay them.
Not all Republicans joined the partisan wrangling Wednesday. Arvada Rep. Bill Crane, whose proposal to crack down on government contractors that hire undocumented workers was spared Tuesday night, said he has found Democrats to be willing partners on the issue.
Crane was one of three House Republicans who visited Arizona last fall on a fact-finding mission to the Mexican border.
His House Bill 1343, which Democrats say they support but which still awaits a committee vote as nonpartisan staffers study its fiscal impact, was written with Romanoff’s help, he said.
“I am willing to work with them, and I found they were willing to work with me,” Crane said. “To me, this is a nonpartisan issue.”
But Crane’s caucus leaders remain unimpressed with the Democrats, they said. Republican House Minority Leader Joe Stengel of Littleton said he thinks the Democrats are done with the issue.
“It’s a secret,” he said of Romanoff’s immigration package. “It’s a secret immigration plan.”
Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald, D-Jefferson County, said the majority party is simply trying to get it right.
“I’m not going to be drummed into a right-wing railroading to do the wrong thing just because they’re loud enough and scary enough,” she said. “Just because they call us names and say things doesn’t make me want to do the wrong thing.”
Staff writer Jim Hughes can be reached at 303-820-1244 or jhughes@denverpost.com.
