Former U.s. Rep. Bob Beauprez at a gubernatorial debate in April. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)
A pair of radio interviews Colorado gubernatorial candidate Bob Beauprez gave over the Fourth of July weekend drew reaction Monday from a Washington immigration reform group quoting Colorado Latino leaders.
Beauprez, the Republican nominee, complimented Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer on the radio and said he would show similar leadership on immigration at the state level in Colorado, if he’s elected.
“Governors on behalf of their states are going to have to be very vocal, very strong, and push back on D.C.,” host Doug Kellet.
Beauprez said that “governors have to push back against federal immigration efforts.”
Arizona passed a law in 2010 that gave police the authority to detain anyone who wasn’t carrying documentation to prove his or her citizenship. The U.S. two years later.
Beauprez said that if the federal government sent buses carrying immigrants from overwhelmed Texas detention facilities to Pueblo, he’s heard from people who said “they’re going to be in the streets to block them.”
America’s Voice in a statement Monday compared Beauprez to Tom Tancredo, the former congressman, presidential and two-time Colorado gubernatorial candidate who is a nationally known firebrand on immigration issues. The organization also released statements from several Colorado Latino leaders condemning Beauprez.
“I thought we had moved past this kind of sentiment in Colorado,” Colorado state Rep. Crisanta Duran, a Demco who represents northwest Denver, “What Beauprez is so casually suggesting is that people across our state be stopped by police based on the way they look or talk.
“Thatap not the kind of state I want to live in and I suggest Beauprez think twice about promoting such a divisive law in a state that values people from different backgrounds.”
Former Rocky Mountain News media critic Jason Salzman of nationalized Beauprez’s remarks with a blog last Tuesday on website.
Beauprez’s campaign countered Monday that America’s Voice was the first to make an issue of Beauprez’s remarks — and that the organization Open Secret Foundation.
“Barack Obama has failed to secure our border and enforce immigration laws that protect our nation,” Beauprez said Monday. “As governor, when the federal government fails to do its job, I’ll stand up for Colorado. Voters are tired of weak politicians like John Hickenlooper who can’t lead and don’t put Coloradans first.”
In remarks released by Beauprez’s campaign. Greg Lopez, the former Colorado district director for the Small Business Administration, said he interpreted Beauprez’s remarks as meaning governors should work together “to get the federal government to do its job,” and that it was ridiculous to conflate that into “inflammatory anti-immigrant language.”
Hugo Chavez-Rey, chairman of the , also defended Beauprez’s radio comments.
“I, and many other Latinos, find it insulting to suggest that common-sense approaches to immigration, calling for federal officials to enforce our nation’s immigration laws, and placing a priority on our nation’s security somehow translates into being ‘anti-Hispanic,’ he stated.
“Colorado’s Hispanic community has a great deal of respect for the law, and many of us are just as frustrated as anyone by the tragic lack of federal and state leadership.”
He said Beauprez’s critics, via America’s Voice, don’t speak for Colorado Latinos.
“It is time to stop with the hyperbole and start dealing with the real issue at hand, the fact that this administration, at all levels, refuses to enforce current laws, while blaming Republicans for not acting on reforming the current immigration laws,” Chaves-Rey said. “In fact, it is the Democrats who don’t want reform because they fear losing some votes.”
Last year, the Democrat-controlled Colorado legislature passed in 2006, including the requirement to alert federal immigration officials during arrests when they suspected someone is an undocumented immigrant.
The Colorado Association of Chiefs of Police urged lawmakers to do away with the requirement, and , “Some see the law as a precursor to more controversial policies later adopted in Arizona and Alabama.”
Alabama’s 2011 law, giving police the power to detain those suspected of being illegal immigrants, was struck down last year by a federal appeals court , that stated federal law preempted the state’s right to regulate illegal immigration.
State Sen.Jessie Ulibarri, a Democrat from Adams County, said Beauprez was “stuck in the past.”
“Maybe he didn’t notice that in the last eight years Colorado’s police chiefs and sheriffs have rejected Arizona-style legislation because they know how important it is to build trust with the immigrant community across the state, Ulibarri stated. “Does he really want to restart the ‘show me your papers’ debate where any Colorado resident who might look like an immigrant is subject to being stopped by police? Why is he trying so hard to divide Colorado?”
