President Obama plays pool with Gov. John Hickenlooper at the Wynkoop Brewery in LoDo during a visit to Denver in July. The game, won by the president, has been the subject of GOP attacks in Hickenlooper’s re-election bid. (Photo by RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post)
Ahead of President Barack Obama’s announcement on immigration, Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper is calling the move “combustible.”
In , the Democrat went even further to say a so-called path to citizenship for the more than 11 million immigrants in the country illegally is not worth pursuing right now.
“Whatap amazing to me is, a lot of young Latinos, the vast majority don’t care about a pathway to citizenship,” Hickenlooper told the Journal in a meeting Wednesday in Washington. “They want to be able to get on an airplane and get down to Mexico City and visit their grandparents. And they want to get a job and be able to get paid over the table. Why don’t we just take the pathway to citizenship and say, ‘We’re not going to worry about it.’ Letap have a robust guest worker system where everybody gets five years and we secure the border and we actually hold business accountable if they’re going to pay people under the table.”
Hickenlooper’s comments diverge from many in his party and carry political implications in a state where Democrats rely on the Latino vote to win elections. Hickenlooper won a second term earlier this month by 3 percentage points and polling showed him winning Latinos by a wide margin.
Carla Castedo, the Colorado state director for Mi Familia Vota, a Latino advocacy organization, said Thursday that Obama is “showing real leadership” in taking action. “We’re thrilled that someone is finally doing something to fix our broken immigration system the address,” she said.
Asked about governor’s comments, Castedo didn’t address Hickenlooper directly but suggested his statement is out of touch.
“We believe strongly in a path to citizenship because creating a permanent underclass of people in this country will not make our country stronger,” she said. “Fortunately, poll after poll shows that Americans agree. They believe in a pathway to citizenship over a guest worker status because they want aspiring Americans to have the same rights and responsibilities as all Americans.”
In the Journal interview, Hickenlooper also took a shot at Democratic U.S. Sen. Mark Udall for not appearing with Obama when he came to Colorado last summer. , playing pool with him at Wynkoop Brewery in Denver.
“My gosh, the president of the United States calls you and you’re going to say ‘No,’?” Mr. Hickenlooper said in the interview. “The president of the United States calls and asks for your time, I think generally you should find a way to do it.”
Hickenlooper also suggested Udall’s loss to Republican Cory Gardner is partly to blame on the incumbent senator’s focus in the campaign, saying he should have put the emphasis on the economy, not social issues.
Hickenlooper also continued to repeat his assertion that he is not interested in running for president in 2016. “No, my God. What a dogfight,” he told the Journal. “You’d have to convince me, and I don’t think there’s a way, a human way to convince me,” he said. “At least the way I look at my life it would be the last major undertaking I get in my adult life. And I’d have to believe that I was changing, somehow doing something incredibly important for the country and changing it, and I don’t see that as remotely feasible in the present world.”
