Former Denver Mayor Federico Peña’s stirring remarks to 75,000 immigration reform advocates signaled his return to public debate on a burning and divisive issue – but not to elected office, he said Tuesday.
“I care deeply about my country and my city,” said Peña, who also held two Cabinet positions during the Clinton administration. “I’ve watched the world in many different crises and think I have something to offer.”
Peña, 59, approached rally organizers last weekend to ask whether he could speak at Monday’s march and demonstration at the state Capitol. When they accepted, he drafted a short speech calling for “compassion and decency” in immigration reform.
He also outlined his vision for change, including sanctions against employers who hire undocumented workers, a guest- worker program and amnesty for the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants already living in the United States.
Peña joined Monday’s march as it turned the corner at 17th and Lawrence streets, just outside the office where he works for a private equity firm, and delivered his remarks shortly thereafter.
His motivation, he said, grew from what he saw as extensive coverage of often vitriolic opponents of what he termed “sensible immigration reform.”
“I wanted to be sure the debate was balanced and that the views I have could be heard by the American people and here in Colorado,” Peña said. “There are sensible people who could devise a new immigration law that will work, but we’ve got to put aside the emotion and rhetoric I hear from many people who are so against the immigrants already here.”
“No. 1 goal for the city”
Peña has committed to help the Denver Public Schools superintendent implement an ambitious reform agenda.
Monday’s address marked a very public departure from the behind-the-scenes advocacy that has defined Peña’s political dealings since his terms as secretary of transportation and secretary of energy from 1993 to 1998. Since then, he has worked in Denver as managing director of Vestar Capital Partners, a New York-based equity firm, while trying to allow his three children “as much a normal childhood as possible,” he said.
Peña, who served as Denver’s mayor from 1983 to 1991, already has committed to help Denver Public Schools Superintendent Michael Bennet implement an ambitious reform agenda dubbed “The Denver Plan.”
Peña hopes to form a citizens committee to help the public better understand Bennet’s plan and “help educate the broader community about the crisis” of the city’s public schools, he said in an earlier interview.
“This must be the No. 1 goal for the city and county and Denver,” Peña said. “It is far more important than all the physical assets and economic strategies.”
Bennet said Peña has been an early and consistent advocate for making sure urban school districts provide a rigorous academic environment to prepare students for college.
“I think he believes deeply that that’s the obligation of a school district like ours,” Bennet said. “He adds a powerful voice to the conversation.”
“A defining moment”
Monday’s marches show that it’s time to stop discussing immigration reform and start taking action, Peña says.
Peña counts immigration reform, education and energy independence among the nation’s most pressing issues.
“Yesterday was a defining moment for our country in a lot of ways, in the sense that we’ve put on the public table what I consider one of those guarded secrets we Americans have been keeping for many decades,” he said. “We’re beyond trying to resolve the edges of the discussion. It’s front and center before us and the world.”
Peña’s immigration reform would include harsh penalties and imprisonment for employers who hire undocumented workers and add sufficient inspectors to ensure compliance. That, he said would stem the flow of illegal workers. A guest- worker program would feed extra demand for labor among certain U.S. industries and see that workers returned to their native country. And an amnesty program for workers already here illegally would weed out criminals and place certain demands – such as learning English – on the path to U.S. citizenship.
Finally, he said, the U.S. must negotiate tougher border security by the Mexican government.
“These are concepts,” Peña said. “You can fine-tune them.”
Peña also said he would work with opponents of a proposed ballot initiative that would deny nonemergency services to illegal immigrants.
Despite all his involvement, however, Peña said he had no plans to seek public office.
Vision for city, state, U.S. Broad experience, including a legal hand in ’70s bilingual education, helped shape Peña’s vision, observers say.
Rick Ridder, a Democratic campaign consultant, emphasized the value of Peña’s return to the public forum.
“He has extraordinary experience on the municipal as well as the national level,” said Ridder, “so it’s good to see him bring his vision to issues that face this country and our state.”
Peña’s views, the rally’s organizing committee found, were right in line with their goal of supporting human rights for immigrants and comprehensive immigration reform, said Nita Gonzales, executive director of Escuela Tlatelolco.
“I was not surprised, but some people don’t know Federico’s history,” she said. “He comes from that activism,” she said. “He was a lawyer that was actively involved in the Chicano Education Project in Colorado that helped join the Keyes case around bilingual education in the 1970s.”
Peña’s ascent to the mayor’s office and the Clinton administration brought a more muted activist – a development organizers like Gonzales understood.
“It’s different when you become an elected politician,” she said. “But we’ve had some discussions, and he is adamant about what has to happen in immigration that will honor rather than dishonor people.”
Reflecting on Monday’s rally, Peña said that its most obvious effect will be to force Americans to deal unemotionally and objectively with immigration.
“I’m sure some won’t respond in that way,” he said, “but I have great hope and confidence that if you give the American people the facts here about both sides of this issue, at the end of the day they’ll do the right thing.”
Staff writers Elizabeth Aguilera and Allison Sherry contributed to this report.
Staff writer Kevin Simpson can be reached at 303-820-1739 or ksimpson@denverpost.com.
