http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_7016324

Lamm debates econ prof on immigration
By Tom McGhee
Denver Post Staff Writer
Article Launched: 09/27/2007 11:42:31 AM MDT


Former Colorado Governor Dick Lamm argues a point about immigration during a 9 News sponsored town hall meeting at the Newman Center for the Performing Arts at the University of Denver, Saturday evening, Jan. 7, 2006. (THE DENVER POST | JACK DEMPSEY)Former Gov. Richard Lamm, an immigration hard-liner, will debate an economist who argues for more lenient immigration laws today.

Lamm, who has called the cheap labor provided by illegal immigrants "economic cocaine" that addicts businesses, was a leader in the movement to strip non-essential services from illegal immigrants.

The state Supreme Court torpedoed the effort, voting to keep the Defend Colorado Now initiative off last November's ballot.

Lamm argues that the constant flood of illegals across the nation's borders depresses wages in this country and increases taxes for Americans who must pay for their education, health care and other municipal services.

He will meet Benjamin Powell, an assistant professor of economics at Boston's Suffolk University and an economist with the Beacon Hill Institute, an economics think tank. Powell too says the nation's immigration laws need to be changed.

Powell favors opening the borders to all immigrants, in any quantity, from any location, so long as they are free of disease have no criminal record.

"Job creation in the U.S. has matched increases in the size of our labor force over the last 50 years. Allowing more migrants into the U.S. actually translates into more jobs," he wrote in commentary published in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The two will debate today at Tivoli Student Union on Metropolitan State College's Auraria campus.

Beginning at 11:30 Powell and Lamm will each speak separately before meeting in a head-to-head debate at 1 p.m.

Lamm was governor of Colorado from 1975 to 1987 and is currently co-director of the Institute for Public Policy Studies and executive director of the center for Public Policy Issues and Contemporary Studies, both at University of Denver.

Powell, who holds a Ph.D in economics from George Mason University, has written widely about immigration.

The event is sponsored by Metro State's School of Business.

Staff writer Tom McGhee can be reached at (303)954-1671 or tmcghee@denverpost.com