Thread: Colorado immigration hearing drawing criticism

http://www.summitdaily.com/article/2006 ... /108220068
Colorado immigration hearing drawing criticism


BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
August 22, 2006


WASHINGTON - Critics on Tuesday said a Senate field hearing on immigration policy scheduled in suburban Denver next week is a political stunt that won't advance the debate in Congress.

Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., said those testifying at the Aug. 30 hearing in Aurora are expected to include Gov. Bill Owens, Aurora Mayor Ed Tauer, local law enforcement officials and Helen Krieble, the owner of a Colorado equestrian park who authored a leading guest worker proposal.

Allard said the invitees have special insight on the cost of illegal immigration that will help Senate Budget Committee members as they consider how to break an impasse in Congress over federal immigration policy.

"Colorado is the perfect location for such a hearing on this topic," Allard wrote in a recent op-ed piece, explaining he wanted o hear from communities at the "front-lines" of the struggle with illegal immigration.

Critics, including Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., have blasted the hearing as "a continuation of Republican stunts to derail any comprehensive immigration reform." Salazar spokesman Cody Wertz said it doesn't seem likely that hearing from Coloradans would help Congress resolve the debate.

"Washington is where comprehensive reform needs to come from," Wertz said.

Salazar will be visiting his 84-year-old mother at home in the San Luis Valley on the day of the hearing, Wertz said.

Ricardo Martinez, who founded Padres Unidos in Denver to fight for immigrant rights, said his group had asked to testify at the hearing to talk about the need to respect immigrants' rights. As of Tuesday, he said had not heard from Allard's office.

"I think the senator already knows about immigration," Martinez said of Allard. "It's just politics. It has nothing to do with finding solutions to the real problems. It's a waste of people's time and money."

Allard spokeswoman Laura Condeluci said she didn't know about Padres Unidos' request. But she said Allard intended the hearing to focus on the effect of immigration on state and local budgets. Officials will collect comments and materials from people who wish to submit them, she added.

The hearing comes weeks after Owens signed a package of tough new state immigration laws passed during a special legislative session on illegal immigration. Colorado's new laws could force 1 million people receiving state and federal benefits to prove they are legal U.S. residents.

Tauer will talk about the costs of illegal immigration on law enforcement, Condeluci said.

And Krieble said in an interview that she will pitch her plan to create a privately run guest-worker program and save the government millions of dollars. Much of the plan has already been absorbed into bills sponsored by Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas.

The House and Senate have held numerous immigration hearings across the country this summer. Rep. Bob Beauprez, R-Colo., who is retiring his suburban Denver House seat to run for governor against former Denver district attorney Bill Ritter, attended a House immigration hearing earlier this month in Lakewood, Colo.

House lawmakers have called for a security fence along much of the U.S.-Mexico border and tough penalties for illegal immigrants and the employers who hire them.

In the Senate, Salazar backed a bill approved in May that would increase border security, create a guest worker program and give many of the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants living in the country a path to citizenship.

Allard voted against the Senate bill.

Critics, including Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., have blasted the hearing as "a continuation of Republican stunts to derail any comprehensive immigration reform." Salazar spokesman Cody Wertz said it doesn't seem likely that hearing from Coloradans would help Congress resolve the debate.

Oh yeah Wertz. Why let facts, information, and the wishes of citizens cloud up your agenda?

"Washington is where comprehensive reform needs to come from," Wertz said.

Sure if you are inviting all illegal aliens there to live there it is.

Where was I. Oh yeah, carve SALAZAR on enemy wall.