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Owens calls 'em back
Illegal immigration issues set for discussion, debate in special session in July

By April M. Washington, Rocky Mountain News
June 29, 2006

Republican Gov. Bill Owens will convene a special session next week to consider a laundry list of illegal immigration proposals that has already served to irritate members of his own party.
The legislative session begins July 6 and should last three to five days at costs of $15,000 a day.

Among the issues: a package of measures modeled on Georgia immigration laws and another proposal similar to one tossed off the Colorado ballot by the state Supreme Court this month, denying illegal immigrants state services.

"The events of the last few days demonstrate how complex and contentious the debate over illegal immigration has been," Owens said. "In almost every respect my call has been expansive.

"It's not designed to micro-manage what the legislature has to do. It's designed to allow the legislature in a special session to have a debate on a big issue for Colorado. I've looked for areas of agreement," the governor said.

The package of immigration measures embraced language backed by leaders of opposing groups — Defend Colorado Now, which endorsed the ballot measure denying immigrants taxpayer-funded services, and Keep Colorado Safe, which takes the opposite stance.

The two groups stunned state politicos with an announcement Tuesday that they had reached a truce. Their compromise included portions of Georgia's newly adopted immigration law, which discourages employers from hiring illegal immigrants and tightens eligibility checks for taxpayer-funded benefits.

Owens, who said he has concerns with portions of the Georgia law, said if the legislature doesn't pass what he calls substantive legislation, it should send the issue back to voters in November.

He wouldn't rule out a second special session if the Democrat-majority legislature fails to deliver.

"If meaningful legislation is not forthcoming, then legislators can count on coming back again," Owens said. "My concern is that while several members of Defend Colorado Now are questioning whether or not they should proceed to the ballot, many other proponents of this measure still want the opportunity to vote."

As expected, Owens expanded his special session agenda to include a number of Republican measures killed by the Democratic majority during the 2006 legislative session, including one that would require proof of citizenship to vote.

But that didn't satisfy his fellow Republicans, who delivered a letter signed by 19 House members to Owens a few hours before a 2 p.m. news conference Wednesday. In it they urged him to stand his ground and insist the legislature put a measure on the ballot to deny state services to people here illegally.

"There has been some discussion of using this special session to amend Colorado law in statute, while blatantly ignoring the right of Colorado citizens to vote on a constitutional amendment limiting state services to illegal aliens," said House Minority Leader Mike May.

Former Gov. Dick Lamm, chair of Defend Colorado Now, said that if the legislature passed a bill modeled on Georgia's immigration law, a ballot initiative denying immigrants state services "would be completely redundant."

Federico Peña, chairman of Keep Colorado Safe, said he welcomes the opportunity to present testimony to lawmakers on the "hidden pitfalls" of the proposal to deny services to illegal immigrants.

Peña said the provisions of the new Georgia law are more practical and effective than the "shoddily crafted" initiative.

"I hope the people of Colorado and the majority of legislators will conclude that if two opponents like Gov. Lamm and myself can reach an agreement on such a difficult issue, that hopefully the legislature can also reach a similar agreement," he said.

House Speaker Andrew Romanoff, who was instrumental in the compromise, said Owens has not indicated what type of legislation he is willing to sign from the session.

"The governor has laid out a smorgasbord of good ideas, but the last thing we need is a partisan food fight," Romanoff said. "We'll have to scramble fast to come up with careful answers to questions we put to him. We need to craft a package that's constitutional, cost-effective and makes common sense"

Democrats' bid fizzled

The governor's call Wednesday effectively ended a bid by Democrats to call a session on their own. They also had wanted to consider Georgia's immigration law, considered one of the toughest in the nation.

Among other things, it requires verification that adults seeking many state benefits are in the country legally, sanctions employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants and mandates that companies with state contracts check the immigration status of employees.

What's on the table

Gov. Bill Owens' call for a special session gives legislators a chance to deal with recent controversial court decisions on immigration and common-law marriage.

The governor's wish list includes:

• A ban on state services for illegal immigrants, except those mandated by federal law — emergency medical service, prenatal care and K-12 public education.

• Fines for employers hiring illegal workers.

• Tax disincentives for illegal workers. Employers could not use wages of illegal workers for tax deductions. Also, a 6 percent state income tax would be imposed on illegal immigrants' wages.

• Proof of citizenship to vote.

• Strengthen the new human trafficking law.

• Restore to the November ballot a measure to deny some public services to illegal immigrants unless lawmakers pass "substantive" illegal immigration crackdowns.

• A 30-day deadline for the state Supreme Court to rule on legal challenges to proposed citizen initiatives.

• Reconsider the state's common-law marriage practices to raise the minimum age for entering such a union, or do away with common-law marriages altogether.

Immigration laws

Enacted by the Colorado legislature in the 2006 regular session:

• Make human smuggling a state felony.

• Make human trafficking a state felony.

• Create an immigration unit in the Colorado State Patrol to investigate human trafficking and smuggling.

• Require state contractors to verify the immigration status of its workers.

• Require local law enforcement to report suspected illegal immigrants arrested for crimes other than domestic violence to immigration authorities.

• Levy a $50,000 fine for making counterfeit identification documents.

• Require an audit of a 2003 law that restricts the use of foreign identification papers, including Mexico's matricula consular card.

Staff Writers Myung Oak Kim and Lynn Bartels contributed to this report.