Colorado Attorney General John Suthers, who has been directed by lawmakers to pursue federal reimbursement for the costs of illegal immigration, will meet with U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales next week.
Jason Dunn, Suthers’ spokesman, said the state’s top lawyer has a meeting with Gonzales that was previously scheduled to discuss a wide range of legal matters.
Suthers will deliver a letter explaining that the Colorado legislature has directed him to take steps to collect for illegal immigration’s costs, Dunn said.
“The attorney general wrote a letter to Alberto Gonzales (on Tuesday) advising him that we’ve been asked by legislature to seek methods of reimbursement,” Dunn said. “He’s meeting with … Gonzales on Tuesday, raising the issue then and giving him a copy of the bills.”
During the recently concluded special session of the legislature, lawmakers passed two bills that could affect Suthers’ office.
House Bill 1014 directs Suthers to pursue “all available remedies” to collect money the state has spent to deal with illegal immigration.
House Bill 1022 puts a measure on the ballot for citizens to decide whether to direct Suthers to sue the federal government to enforce immigration laws.
The bills raise the question of whether lawmakers or voters can tell the attorney general exactly what to do.
“You do have a separation-of- powers issue there,” said Tom Strickland, a former U.S. attorney.
Lawmakers often wield budget-making power to set direction in offices of attorneys general. In some states, Strickland said, lawmakers tried to prevent attorneys general from pursuing litigation against tobacco companies by withholding funding.
But giving the citizens a chance to dictate action by the attorney general is another matter, Strickland said. It would be foolhardy for the attorney general, who is elected by the people, to ignore the outcomes of a popular vote on a referred measure.
“With respect to the initiative, that’s a lot of politics,” Strickland said. “If it passes by large margin, at minimum, people are going to pay a lot of attention to what he does.”
At the same time, the attorney general could determine that such litigation could be wasteful of taxpayer money.
Dunn said six other states have tried unsuccessfully to sue the federal government over illegal immigration matters. He said courts have dismissed those cases, saying it is a political, not a legal, matter.
Still, Dunn said, the Colorado attorney general’s office has just started to research the question.
“We have people fleshing out theories we could proceed under if it (the plan to sue the government) passes in November,” he said.
Staff writer Mark P. Couch can be reached at 303-820-1794 or mcouch@denverpost.com.
This story has been corrected in this online archive. Originally, due to an editing error, the attorney general’s last name was misspelled on second reference.
