This was huge news yet so little info. This was from 9.am. - 5p.m.!

Article Launched: 11/17/2005 01:00:00 AM

2005 colorado legislature
GOP taking on illegal immigration
Lawmakers are pursuing legislation to make the state a less attractive destination and punish companies that hire undocumented workers.
By Jim Hughes
Denver Post Staff Writer


Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington, D.C., said Wednesday that states should "make it as difficult as possible for illegal aliens who can t demonstrate (legal residency) to live a normal life here." (Post / Glen Martin)

Conservative Republican lawmakers are pursuing legislation that would make Colorado a less attractive destination for illegal immigrants and punish companies that hire undocumented workers, they said Wednesday at the Capitol.

Meanwhile, a like-minded citizens group intent on immigration reform will start collecting signatures in January for a November 2006 ballot question asking voters to require residency checks of all applicants for state services, its leader said.

The senators and representatives heard from immigration-policy experts and activists from around the country Wednesday at a Republican Study Committee of Colorado event.

The fledgling GOP caucus group, formed in the spring by some of the General Assembly's most conservative legislators, includes three who recently toured the Mexican border.

Among the measures they are contemplating: a requirement that local police record the residency status and employers of people they arrest; a legal-workers-only condition for Colorado business licenses; a mandatory status check for all state hires; and a ban on state contracts for companies that don't ensure that their workers are legal, they said.

The caucus group organized the event to kick off a debate many expect to be a major issue when the legislature convenes in January, said Rep. Dave Schultheis, R-Colorado Springs.

"We need to make sure as many legislators as possible can understand what the issues are," he said. "Most of the politicians ... do not grasp the significance of dealing with this issue or are being cowed."

Invited speakers told the caucus group that illegal immigrants were bringing deadly diseases into the country, committing crimes and overwhelming government programs, the medical system and American culture itself.

They also may constitute the leading edge of an organized effort by Mexico to seize

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the Southwest, one speaker said.

"We have trivialized and removed the dignity of citizenship," lawyer and immigration activist Madeleine Cosman said.

Though immigration policy is decided by the federal government, state governments can take action, said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington, D.C.

With many Democratic and Republican leaders in Washington satisfied by a "post- American" vision that de-emphasizes borders, states should not sit idly by, he said.

"Make it as difficult as possible for illegal aliens who can't demonstrate (legal residency) to live a normal life here," he said.

Immigration lawyer Donna Lipinski, part of a group that is preparing to fight next fall's expected ballot question, thought Wednesday's event was "appalling," she said during a break.

"If I were Hispanic and I were sitting in that audience, I would feel attacked," she said. "I would feel like they're trying to shame me."

Democratic House Speaker Andrew Romanoff said Democrats will explore the issue at a national conference in Denver next month.

"This is a challenge we ought to meet, and we intend to," he said.

Staff writer Jim Hughes can be reached at 303-820-1244 or jhughes@denverpost.com.

http://www.denverpost.com/search/ci_3224905

Illegals focus of GOP hearing
Lawmakers gather to learn more about immigration issues
STORY TOOLS
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By Ann Imse and Fernando Quintero, Rocky Mountain News
November 17, 2005
Correction
This story mistakenly identified Rep. Ted Harvey, R-Highlands Ranch, as Rep. Mark Larson, R-Cortez. Larson did not attend the meeting in which lawmakers gathered information about immigration.

Eleven Republican legislators met Wednesday to collect expert testimony on illegal immigration, but serious statistics and calls for strict enforcement were mixed with what one critic called "fear of Mexicans."

Former state Sen. John Andrews testified first, calling illegal immigration "a silent invasion," threatening the American traditions of assimilation and respect for law.

Madeleine Cosman, former professor of medical law at City College in New York, said illegal immigrants in California are giving birth to sick children to collect welfare.

Testifying on a DVD shown at the hearing, she said that "people from Mexico" are the cause of a rise in diseases that "explode hearts" and cause other horrendous symptoms.

Yeh Ling-Ling of the Diversity Alliance for a Sustainable America warned that Mexicans are planning to "reconquer" the southwestern United States and that some are voting and "even running for office."

The meeting in the old state Supreme Court at the Capitol was set up by the Republican Study Committee of Colorado, formed this year to help Republican politicians in state government focus on such issues as lower taxes, personal responsibility and limited government.

It was chaired by state Rep. David Schultheis, R-Colorado Springs, who joined two colleagues last month on a trip to Arizona to meet with lawmakers, talk with border residents and patrol the border with members of Minutemen Civil Defense Corps, a citizens group.

The hearing was billed as an effort to give legislators expert testimony on immigration issues. The Colorado legislature is expected this year to see bills to limit state services to illegal immigrants, and a citizen initiative to do the same is in the works.

Mark Krikorian of the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington, D.C., called for the government to gradually reduce the number of undocumented people by enforcing laws barring them from working. He also called for tax and Social Security officials to enforce immigration law.

After lunch, former Colorado Gov. Dick Lamm advocated tighter border controls and limiting services to illegal immigrants, calling it a "cost- benefit" issue.

"Sure, they pay sales tax. Sure, they're hard-working people. But you get little withholding from their wages. They send their money back to Mexico or somewhere else south of the border. You don't get tax dollars from the revenue side."

Kent Lambert, executive director of the Republican Study Committee of Colorado, asked Lamm about the notion that undocumented immigrants are taking jobs Americans won't do. "If we do away with slavery, who's going to pick the cotton?" retorted Lamm. "The claim that they're doing the work other Americans won't do is vastly overblown."

After Lamm's testimony, state Rep. Mark Larson, R-Cortez, told the Democrat, "We need leaders like you that have a name. I want to encourage you to be louder and more extreme."

Donna Lipinski, a Denver immigration attorney who attended the hearing, said she was "shocked" by some of the testimony.

"I thought there was going to be a discussion," she said. "This has been fear of Mexicans, whether they are here legally or illegally. What I don't hear are viable solutions."

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drm...245606,00.html