Eight Republican state lawmakers sent President Bush a letter Tuesday to “strongly request” he declare a national state of emergency until illegal immigration can be brought under control.
The letter came a day after hundreds of thousands of people waved Mexican and American flags in rallies across the country. The demonstrations were designed to encourage what organizers call “comprehensive immigration reform,” not solutions focused solely on enforcement, they said.
But the Republicans who signed the letter said they considered the nonviolent rallies threats to law and order.
“We have been shocked by the blatant, coordinated, and anti-American demonstrations on behalf of illegal aliens throughout the country … with little or no serious action on the part of the Federal Government to address the growing negative impact of illegal aliens, on the American people, or to protect all states from invasion,” the letter said.
Democratic Rep. Terrance Carroll of Denver said Tuesday’s letter marked a new low for the debate over illegal immigration in Colorado.
“It’s certainly their right to write the president, but to call for a national state of emergency is overkill at the very least, and one of the most extreme forms of demagoguery that I’ve witnessed at the legislature in a long time,” he said.
The letter was a legitimate attempt to weigh in on the national debate in Washington, said one of its signers, Rep. Ted Harvey, R-Highlands Ranch.
“I think it’s appropriate for the state legislature to be telling the president and the Senate that we take this issue very seriously, and we want something to be done at the federal level,” Harvey said.
U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar, D- Colo., also wants the president to take action, he said Tuesday.The president is needed to pull Republican hard-liners in the House and Senate into the compromise fold, Salazar said.
“The president’s style has been to fly off somewhere and hold a press conference,” Salazar said. “This is a complicated- enough issue that he needs to roll up his sleeves, get involved, and help us hammer it out.”
The street rallies are not over, organizers say, and on Tuesday, another group of students walked out of a Colorado school over the immigration issue.
About 160 students at O’Connell Middle School in Lakewood walked out Tuesday morning after hearing that the principal had called illegal immigrants criminals, said Jefferson County School District Superintendent Cindy Stevenson.
After interviewing teachers present Monday when the principal allegedly made those comments, school officials found she had said nothing wrong, and that the protest was over a misunderstanding, Stevenson said. Parents and school officials were meeting to discuss it Tuesday night, she said.
Staff writer Jim Hughes can be reached at 303-820-1244 or jhughes@denverpost.com.
