Illegal Immigration Foes Want State Services Limit

(AP) DENVER A campaign to bar illegal immigrants from getting most state services kicked off Thursday at a rally at the state Capitol with speakers faulting Congress, President Bush, big corporations and liberals for failing to take action on immigration.

Defend Colorado Now needs 100,000 signatures to get the proposed constitutional amendment on November's ballot. Members of the group, which includes former Democratic Gov. Dick Lamm and former Republican Senate President John Andrews, are still waiting on a ruling in a legal challenge to the proposal but decided to start collecting signatures anyway.

Fred Elbel, director of Defend Colorado Now, said if the court finds a problem with it, the proposal will be revised and supporters will start gathering signatures anew.

Elbel said this month's massive demonstrations by immigration supporters has galvanized his backers.

Lamm said he first realized illegal immigration was a problem when he was governor and some meatpackers told him they had been fired and replaced by illegal workers who made less money and no benefits.

Lamm blamed a business push for ever-cheaper labor and "open-border liberals" for preventing a crackdown on illegal immigration.

Defend Colorado Now member Waldo Benavidez was first to sign the petition at the rally. He criticized both Bush and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., accusing them of saying Americans don't want to work. Benavidez also criticized Democrats, whom he said where playing "political football" with immigration to try to win Hispanic votes.

He said illegal immigrants were driving down wages for Americans.

"In the final analysis, it's all about cheap labor and denying the middle class their piece of the American dream," he said.

Elbel said the proposed amendment can't stop the state from paying for schooling or emergency medical care for illegal immigrants, which are required by the federal government. But he said it would prevent illegal immigrants from getting food stamps, welfare and in-state college tuition.

Polly Baca, a former Democratic state senator who opposes the amendment, said it could hurt all Coloradans. She cited vaccinations, saying everyone would suffer amid a flu outbreak if illegal immigrants were denied state-supported immunizations.

Baca, executive director of the Latin American Research and Service Agency, said the state shouldn't try to fix the immigration system because it is a national issue.

"It has to be done in a way that takes (illegal immigrants) out of the shadows and not in a way that pushes them back into it," she said.

Baca is part of a new coalition, Keep Colorado Safe, forming to oppose the ballot proposal. It also includes the Colorado Catholic Conference and Lorez Meinhold, executive director of the Colorado Consumer Health Initiative.

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