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Do-nothing initiative just a polling device


READER COMMENTS:
"Much adieu about nothing...Bill Shakespeare"
January 5, 2006, 2:51 PM

"This is a federal issue, not a state one. BUT, it is NOT a waste of time. It gets the message out that we are out of patience. A message the feds need to hear. Littwin is disconnected from reality."
January 5, 2006, 10:36 AM



Mike Littwin

I hate to waste your time, but don't blame me. Blame Dick Lamm. Blame Tom Tancredo. Blame the people at Defend Colorado Now.

They want to amend the Colorado Constitution with an amendment that does . . . absolutely . . . nothing.

Let me repeat that.

It's a proposed amendment - and one that will almost certainly pass - that does . . . absolutely . . . nothing.

It is supposed to be an amendment addressing the problem of illegal immigration in Colorado.

It doesn't - in any serious way.

It is supposed to be an amendment that has some impact on illegal immigration in Colorado.

It doesn't - in any way at all.

The proposal does - say it along with me - absolutely nothing.

And yet, the group called Defend Colorado Now (which should be renamed Wasting Colorado's Time Now) will be collecting signatures to get the initiative on the ballot.

They'll be taking up great amounts of time on talk radio. The newspapers will cover the issue with great intensity.

The proposed amendment will no doubt become a major factor in the coming governor's race.

And to what effect? See above.

I'll give you the money graph, right there in Section 1:

"Except as mandated by federal law, the provision of non-emergency services by the state of Colorado or any city, county or other political subdivision thereof, is restricted to citizens of and aliens lawfully present in the United States of America."

In plain English, that means that the state can't provide any services to illegal immigrants except those that federal law says it has to, including K-12 education and emergency medical care.

Guess what - and I can't say this any more plainly - that already is the law in Colorado.

If the amendment passes, nothing changes - except the size of the state constitution, which grows even more unwieldy. (Oh, and there is Section 2, which says that any citizen can sue any jurisdiction for not enforcing laws against illegal immigrants. File that under frivolous lawsuits in the making.)

There was a news conference Wednesday, headed by Lamm, who was flanked by other Democrats, although not any Democratic legislators.

We had a fairly heated conversation on the topic, in which Lamm attempted to defend the amendment.

He was asked what the amendment would actually, uh, mend.

He was asked how, if you were an illegal immigrant, your life would be different if the amendment passed.

He couldn't provide a good answer, because there is no good answer. Except the truth, which is that we're being asked to amend the state constitution for the sake of symbolism.

And, of course, the deeper truth, which is that the proposal will keep voters inflamed on the issue.

It's not policy. It's a tactic. It's an attempt to turn the initiative process into a polling device. Gallup should be running this initiative.

Do you or do you not want to kick every illegal immigrant out of Colorado? Check here.

But if the proposal is meaningless - except to halt any further so-called drifting of the state into so-called sanctuary status - that doesn't mean Lamm wasn't excited about it.

This is an issue that Lamm has been flogging for years, since he was governor. (By the way, I love to hear how this is now a national security issue, to protect our borders. I'm pretty sure the people, like Lamm, who were railing about this long before 9/11 weren't talking about national security then. He couldn't have even dreamed of a wall.)

This is an issue that is the new wedge issue - one that's now so hot that it gets Tom Tancredo on the front page of The New York Times, as if he were a serious politician and not, well, Tom Tancredo.

Here's what Lamm did say about the proposed amendment:

"This is a shot heard around the United States. If this passes overwhelmingly, every politician in America is going to quake in his boots.

"This is so much more important than anything . . . This takes Arizona (one step further) and and it says, 'Look, we're tired.' "

Arizona passed an initiative much like this one. That was a message.

This would be a message, too. It's a message that would go in your constitution.

It would say, Lamm argues, that people are fed up - and that the legislature would be listening.

Of course, you could say that with an amendment that actually addresses the issue. Lamm agreed - but said that it was too complicated to get such an initiative on the ballot because of lawsuits. And so we get . . . this.

Later in the day, the Republican legislators weighed in. They included the usual suspects - led by Dave "Doc" Schultheis, who was not visibly armed - and offered up a sampling of proposed laws.

Among the proposals: to force cities to pay for cops to get trained to double up as immigration officers and to deny state money to any city that had "sanctuary" language.

These laws won't pass - just as the governor's guest-worker proposal won't pass. But other laws will. Democrats may control the legislature, but, like Lamm, they can count. My guess is both sides will come together on legislation that will slap the wrists of those who employ illegal immigrants.

The real work will be done in Washington - this is a national issue, folks - with Tancredo on one side, McCain-Kennedy on the other and George W. Bush somewhere in the middle.

Meanwhile, you and I will be in the voting booth. Wasting our time.

littwinm@rockymountainnews.com.

About Mike Littwin
Mike Littwin has moved back to writing a news column. He came to the Rocky Mountain News as a sports columnist from the Baltimore Sun, where he wrote a sports column for seven years and a general column for five. Before that, he worked at the Los Angeles Times as a sports and national news feature writer. Mike has contributed to many magazines, including Sports Illustrated, Esquire, TV Guide and Capital Style.