www.gjsentinel.com


Colorado immigration ballot measure in the works


Wednesday, October 05, 2005

By GARY HARMON

The Daily Sentinel


State and federal politicians are beginning to shape an initiative intended to prevent illegal immigrants from receiving government services in Colorado.

U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo, a Front Range Republican, has been working with a state legislator from Colorado Springs, Dave Schultheis, on a potential ballot measure, Tancredo’s spokesman, Will Adams, said Tuesday.

Schultheis and two other Front Range Republican legislators, Bill Crane of Arvada and Jim Welker of Loveland, are touring Arizona this week and have promised action on illegal immigration in the coming legislative session.

Among the people the Colorado delegation met was Arizona Rep. Russell Pearce, a co-author of Proposition 200, a ballot initiative that prohibits illegal immigrants from getting government services in Arizona. The proposition, which passed last year with 55.6 percent of the vote, was upheld after a legal challenge in the Arizona courts.

A ballot measure aimed at hindering illegal immigration likely would succeed in Colorado, said state Rep. Josh Penry, a Grand Junction Republican.

“All the polls show this issue is off the charts,� Penry said.

Penry, as well as Rep. Bernie Buescher, D-Grand Junction, and state Sen. Ron Teck, R-Grand Junction, said they were unaware of specific plans by legislators to tackle illegal immigration.

Federal law requires hospitals to render emergency treatment, so there’s is little the state could do in that regard, Buescher said.

He was concerned, though, about “coyotes,� people who collect large payments to smuggle immigrants across the border, sometimes with disastrous consequences.

“If I did anything, it would be in that regard,� Buescher said. “That’s an egregious situation.�

Teck said he was unsure what areas a ballot initiative would take on.

Issues such as illegal immigrants receiving federal or state money already have been addressed.

“It seems like we already have those laws on the books in Colorado,� he said.

One possible area would be whether non-emergency services must be provided without question, Penry said.

The Colorado lawmakers visiting Arizona said their legislative agenda would include efforts to prevent illegal immigrants from purchasing property and deputizing Colorado State Patrol officers as immigration agents.

The delegation also cited a report by the Pew Hispanic Center, a nonpartisan research group, that said more immigrants now enter the United States illegally than legally, and Colorado is becoming one of their major destinations.

The legislators also cited a survey by Bendixen & Associates that said $544 million per year is sent to Latin American countries from Colorado alone.