Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper had this to say about a proposed new state law banning “sanctuary” policies for undocumented immigrants.
“I think if we pass this bill, that finally people will believe that there is no such thing as a sanctuary city in Colorado.”
We’ll soon see.
Thursday, the state House of Representatives passed an “anti-sanctuary” law sent over by the Senate. The legislature will probably work out a couple of differences. The governor probably will sign the bill. It looks like put-up or shut-up time.
Nativists always mention Denver when complaining about places that coddle undocumented workers. At hearings on the anti-sanctuary law, anti-immigrant forces cited the city’s Executive Order 116 and police policy 104.52 as proof that Denver is soft on undocumented foreigners moving into the U.S. labor force.
Hickenlooper had something to say about that, too:
“Nothing we’ve ever written or said to police officers ever suggested they shouldn’t cooperate completely with the federal government in every way they possibly can.”
Hizzoner is on to something. The new law says “a peace officer who has probable cause that an arrestee for a criminal offense is not legally present in the United States shall report such arrestee to the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement office if the arrestee is not held at a detention facility.”
If the “arrestee” is in jail, the sheriff must report to ICE.
That’s been happening.
Mayor Wellington Webb issued the oft-maligned Executive Order 116 in 1998. It dealt with a federal attempt to cut public benefits to certain legal immigrants.
“This distinction among legal immigrants unfairly impacts many of Denver’s children, senior citizens and disabled residents,” the order reads, “and has the potential to be misinterpreted … to foster a climate of intolerance and discrimination.” This language is subversive only if you’re hoping to create such a climate.
Denver police policy 104.52 is more open to interpretation. Parts dealing with “undocumented immigrants” contain two controversial elements.
The first says that ICE enforces immigration laws. So “Denver Police officers shall not initiate police actions with the primary objective of discovering the immigration status of a person.” The second says that “generally, officers will not detain, arrest or take enforcement action against a person solely because he/she is suspected of being an undocumented immigrant.”
That’s the kind of country most of us thought we lived in. It’s the country we want to live in. It’s the country a reading of the Constitution seeks to assure.
The only conspiracy here exists in the minds of the paranoid.
“Nothing in the executive order promotes illegal immigration,” said Hickenlooper’s press secretary, Lindy Eichenbaum Lent. “The Denver Police Department’s procedures … have been in place for at least the past 20 years.”
They’re not likely to change, even after all the huffing and puffing about “sanctuary cities” under the Capitol dome.
“The new law is applicable only to arrestees,” said Denver Assistant City Attorney David Broadwell. “It would be much more problematic if it sent local law enforcement out to hunt down illegal immigrants. We’ve looked at our provisions and don’t think they violate the letter or the spirit of the (new) law.”
They sure don’t violate the American spirit. Most of us would be happy to deport every thief or thug, no matter where they were born. But letting homegrown crooks run free because local constables are harassing anybody with an accent makes nobody safer. That, finally, is why Hickenlooper is right when he says a prohibition on so-called sanctuaries “will have no effect on Denver.”
Bring it on. Old city policies dealt with what new laws should:
Protection, not profiling.
Jim Spencer’s column appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday. He can be reached at 303-820-1771 or jspencer@denverpost.com.
