Colorado won’t be competitive without education, housing and labor
Re: “Polis forms ‘Competitiveness Council‘,” July 23 business story.
Gov. Jared Polis is forming a competitiveness council composed of “business leaders from various industries as well as state and local economic development officials.” Given the composition of this council, it seems the results are already a given — less taxes, less regulation, etc. That is the typical business development agenda. There is nothing wrong with this, but it strikes me as incomplete.
Education, housing and labor are also essential components to competitiveness, but I see no one from those fields on this council. Time after time we focus on only a narrow view of what makes a good business environment, but there is a lot more than low taxes and minimal regulation. If the council is to offer any meaningful recommendations, it must incorporate these views also.
William Pincus, Denver
Hold employee accountable for shooting
Re: “Police: Geo Group employee shot woman after protest,” July 18 news story.
An ICE detention agent shot a protester in the foot as she was walking away from him after a verbal confrontation. Now, he is being charged with first-degree assault in connection with the shooting. It’s about time the employees working on immigration issues are held accountable for their illegal actions, same as a police officer would. Perhaps there wouldn’t be as many shootings coming from an ICE agents or Geo guards if they got better training.
Leroy M Martinez, Denver
Blame to go around for these tragedies
Re: “Two Lorenzos from Mexico. One fulfilled his American dream. ICE killed the other”, July 19 commentary.
The “Two Lorenzos from Mexico” commentary highlights the tragedy and injustice of a person losing their life simply because of illegal immigration. Not knowing all the circumstances, I cannot say the officer’s action was warranted or unwarranted, but it was a tragedy that never should have happened.
One can blame Trump, or ICE, or the officer who shot Salgado Araujo, as the author does, but letap remember why we are where we are and how we got here.
It wasn’t because the Biden administration did nothing to prevent millions of undocumented and unvetted immigrants from simply walking into our country. Over the past 25 years, every president (Democrat and Republican) had a Congress that was controlled by his party, therefore, each had ample opportunity to pass updated, fair and proper immigration legislation, but none did.
So, when looking for someone to share the blame for this tragedy, letap remember our presidents, senators and congressional representatives who chose to “kick that can down the road”.
Jim Malec, Roxborough Park
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