It’s probably fitting to reflect on the politics of illegal immigration during the same week the population of the United States reached 300 million.
This event is no cause for a national celebration. Rapid population growth is widely viewed more as a curse than a blessing – especially when much of the increase can be blamed on the failure to control illegal immigration.
The news of the population milestone arrives at an opportune time, weeks before a national election in which the subject of immigration figures in many local races.
The question that hovers over this election and this state is, “Who owns the immigration issue?” More particularly, “Have the Democrats successfully stolen this issue from the Republicans?”
Definitive answers can only be known once the votes have been counted, but insights are already available. Internet users can find some of them in an article by Rep. Dave Schultheis, R-Colorado Springs, at vdare.com. Schultheis, a vocal opponent of illegal immigration, makes a convincing case that the Democrats have been able to hijack the immigration issue, largely because of the efforts (or duplicity) of former Gov. Dick Lamm.
Schultheis points out that Lamm was an original backer of a proposed statewide initiative barring illegal immigrants from receiving certain state and local benefits, but once the Supreme Court prevented the measure from appearing on this year’s ballot, Schultheis says, Lamm did an amazing about-face, putting the interests of the Democratic Party above all else.
It was Lamm, Schultheis says, who set the stage for a special legislative session, the main result of which was that Democrats had political cover on the issue of illegal immigration.
Lamm’s turnabout on the immigration issue began, Schultheis says, with a July 16 interview in The Denver Post in which Lamm questioned why Coloradans would think illegal immigration was the most important issue facing the state. “This is not a very good reading of what problems the state faces,” Lamm said. “It’s a serious issue, but people seem to have gone from an under-reaction to overreaction.”
Schultheis went on to criticize Lamm for his private negotiations with current Democratic leaders prior to the special legislative session. He also dismisses the result of that session as being far from the “toughest laws in the country,” a claim later made by both Gov. Bill Owens and Democratic legislative leaders. The new laws, Schultheis insists, are not as tough as those in Georgia, the supposed model for Colorado’s statutes, or those sponsored by state Republicans.
Whatever the merits of Schultheis’ complaints, it is beyond dispute that the special session did allow Democrats to claim they had dealt with illegal immigration.
When the folks at vdare.com asked Lamm for his response, what the former governor said was in some ways startling. Of course, he defended the special legislative session, saying it achieved “our objectives.” But Lamm went on to say the results were achieved without a “redundant vote of the people.”
It is remarkable enough that Lamm believes allowing the public a direct say on immigration policy would be “redundant,” but what is even more astounding is what he had to say about what he thinks is the most important problem facing Colorado.
Lamm’s choice for that honor, believe it or not, is the “current drought.” Lamm specifically says that “as important as illegal immigration is, those who say it is the most important issue facing Colorado don’t understand the current drought.”
That statement is stunning on three counts:
Unless the former governor is advocating cloud seeding, there isn’t a whole lot a political party or the legislature can do about a drought.
What about the general agreement that the drought isn’t current? Just the other day, the state’s biggest domestic water distributor, the Denver Water Board, said that for practical purposes the drought is over.
If Lamm is truly worried about providing water to the state’s 4.4 million residents, doesn’t that bring us all back to the question of how to control future population growth and what to do about illegal immigration?
Perhaps Schultheis and others of like mind will come to see that losing Lamm as a loyal ally on the immigration issue may not be such a bad thing after all.
Al Knight of Fairplay (alknight@mindspring.com) is a former member of The Post’s editorial page staff. His column appears on Wednesdays.
