Thread: CO Protesters Rap Immigration Policy

http://rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local ... 86,00.html

Protesters rap immigration policy
Group presses mayor for reform, sees link to detective's slaying

By Kevin Vaughan, Rocky Mountain News
May 17, 2005

A group of protesters who contend that Denver offers "sanctuary" to illegal immigrants took their case to the steps of City Hall on Monday, arguing that current policies played a hand in last week's slaying of a police officer.

In a midday demonstration, roughly 30 protesters waved placards, hailed a promised petition drive to deny services to people in the country illegally and demanded that Mayor John Hickenlooper rescind a seven-year-old city policy they described as an "artfully worded treatise on sanctuary for illegal aliens."

The leaders of the Colorado Alliance for Immigration Reform also made it clear they want Hickenlooper to institute a policy that "unequivocally condemns illegal immigration."

The crux of the protesters' argument is that Denver's policies handcuff police officers on the street, keeping them from reporting to federal authorities the names of men and women they encounter whose U.S. citizenship cannot be established - and that those policies give illegal immigrants "de facto amnesty."

Leaders of the group carried a letter outlining their demands to the mayor's office, which they delivered to Hickenlooper's chief of staff, Michael Bennet.

Bennet said the city will "look at anything any time," but he acknowledged he and the demonstrators have very different interpretations of the city's policies.

Bennet argued that the policy in question - enacted in 1998 by former Mayor Wellington Webb - doesn't deal with illegal immigrants and that immigration policy is largely reserved for the federal government.

The protest was carried out against the backdrop of the killing of a Denver police officer.

Raul Garcia-Gomez, a 19-year-old illegal immigrant suspected in the slaying of Denver police Detective Donald Young and the wounding of his partner, John Bishop, was working at a restaurant in which Hickenlooper has an ownership interest.

Garcia-Gomez had been cited three times in recent months for traffic violations. None of the tickets, however, led to any close examination of his immigration status.

A Denver police policy discourages officers from detaining or arresting people solely because they are suspected of being in the country illegally.

The protest began at noon on the City Hall steps below Hickenlooper's office with a small but enthusiastic crowd of demonstrators. Some held American flags. Others held signs.

Said one: "Legal - Yes, Illegal - No."

Said another: "Don't dishonor our law enforcement with sanctuary for illegal aliens." Beneath the words, it depicted caricatures of Hickenlooper and Webb urinating on a police badge.

"We're not happy," said Fred Elbel, the director of the alliance. "We're upset. We're mad as hell."

U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Littleton, and former Gov. Dick Lamm were there in spirit, contributing letters to the cause.

Another member of the group, Mike McGarry, called Denver's policies "pervasive and perversive and perverted."

One protester, Bill Herron, said he plans to circulate a petition that calls for a ballot measure in 2006 that would restrict governments in Colorado from providing any services to illegal immigrants that aren't required by federal law.

Afterward, protesters took their letter to Hickenlooper's office.

Hickenlooper was not in his third-floor office when the alliance's leaders visited. He was visiting Smedley Elementary School in northwest Denver, part of his ongoing effort to visit a public school every week.

Bennet promised to deliver the letter.

vaughank@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-5019

Naturally the mayor wasn't in his office. He'd sneaked out the back door so his 'underling' could take the heat.

RR

I understand that their schools are OVERFLOWING with ILLEGALs. Soooo, does that mean that Hickenloop the Doop was visiting Illegals instead of doing the business of the city??