Thread: Ritter: Colo. will be friendly to foreign-born

Ritter: Colo. will be friendly to foreign-born
By Tom McGhee The Denver Post

Article Last Updated: 10/05/2007 05:22:42 PM MDT


Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter pledged to keep the state's tough immigration laws from scaring away those foreigners who are in the country legally in a speech today.

"We will make sure we aren't viewed as a state unfriendly to foreign-born people," Ritter told members of the Latin American Research And Service Agency.

Ritter asked members of the nonprofit organization, which runs educational and other programs for Latinos, to provide the names of qualified Latinos to help state government recruit personnel.

Ritter gave the key-note speech at Denver-based LARASA's 16th Annual Bernie Valdez Awards Luncheon today at the Denver Merchandise Mart.

In his State of the State address in January, Ritter laid out priorities from education to health care, transportation to public safety.

The governor had called for freezing property-tax rates, which the legislature approved, to prevent school mill levies from dropping as assessments increase.

His 20 minute talk focused on education, health care and immigration, subjects important in the Latino community, where high school drop-out rates are high and many live below the poverty line without insurance.

In the Latino-dominated San Luis Valley, 25 percent of residents are without health insurance, he said.

The state needs to invest in the education of its youngest residents to keep many of them from being caught up in the criminal-justice system when they are older.

Preschool programs are effective at steering kids toward a future free of crime, he said. "Why wouldn't we, as a state, look at that opportunity as an investment opportunity."

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_7097072

who are in the country legally

No problem here.

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Call the Senate: NO AgJOBS Amnesty !

Why not let the citizenry decide how to treat each other. Who does the governor work for if not the public? Work hard for the legal citizens equally, stop making a difference, wrong is wrong. When it boils down (push comes to shove), citizens must take top billing over immigrants who must EARN their wings!