Thread: Littwin: Debate blown off course in media storm

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Littwin: Debate blown off course in media storm

May 17, 2005

pictureIllegal immigration is a serious, complex matter. Not that you'd know it from the noontime rally in front of City Hall Monday.

They came by the dozens - it might have been as many as three dozen - to protest Denver's so-called status as a sanctuary city and demand that the mayor do something about it.

It was not a serious protest, of course, unless you actually think the mayor has some say in setting border policy - but maybe the guys wearing their just-back-from-the-border Minutemen T-shirts do.

But Denver isn't a sanctuary city, whatever that means. It doesn't offer de facto amnesty, either. If you don't believe me, just ask the illegal immigrant who's fixing your roof.

Or do what I did: Ask the people at the rally to tell you how Denver's policies differ from those in other cities. And then try to keep a straight face when someone actually cites New Ipswich, N.H., as a city to emulate. Tom Tancredo went to New Hampshire to honor the police chief of New Ipswich, population 4,301, who apparently took on the illegal-immigrant debate all on his own.

But, then, Denver isn't really the issue. Cities, with the possible Ipswichian exception, are fairly constrained by the Constitution in their ability to make immigration law.

If there's a sanctuary problem - as someone pointed out to me - it's with the entire country.

In the U.S. Senate, where they can decide policy, the McCain-Kennedy bill on immigration reform has just been introduced. The bill, which offers a way for illegal immigrants to gain permanent residency, has some problems. That's because any bill that actually addresses the issue - which is slightly more complex than the question: What part of illegal don't you understand? - is bound to have problems.

The Colorado Alliance for Immigration Reform (CAIR) rally was not an attempt to get anywhere near the heart of the issue. It was an attempt to get in front of the TV cameras.

And it worked. This is what happens when your city is at the center of a tragically perfect media storm.

The storm began, of course, with the fact that Raul Garcia-Gomez, the person who is the subject of a massive manhunt for shooting Detective Donnie Young in the back, is an illegal immigrant.

Then we learned he was stopped by cops three times, on traffic charges, before Detective Young was murdered - and that Denver cops are forbidden from looking into someone's legal status on a traffic stop.

The topper was that Garcia-Gomez, working with apparently phony papers, actually worked at a restaurant co-owned by the mayor.

Even though the Cherry Cricket restaurant, where Garcia-Gomez worked as a dishwasher, is managed by a trust, that shouldn't absolve John Hickenlooper from answering the question about illegal immigrants working in restaurants. He knows the issue, just as Tom Tancredo knew that there could be illegal immigrants fixing up his infamous basement.

Tancredo didn't make it to the rally Monday. He sent his regrets. So did Dick Lamm. But that didn't stop CAIR leaders from heading to Hickenlooper's office to deliver a letter stating their demands. Hickenlooper wasn't there, either, but Michael Bennet, his chief of staff, said he'd deliver the letter to him.

First, the letter said Hickenlooper was to rescind Executive Order 116. Like many of you, until very recently, I didn't know any of Denver's executive orders. It turns out that Wellington Webb issued this one in 1998.

Hickenlooper's office distributed copies of the speech Webb gave to accompany the order. Webb spoke about welfare reform and its unfair impact on legal immigrants in Denver.

According to CAIR, it was "an artfully worded treatise on sanctuary for illegal aliens" and Hickenlooper should replace it with another order - I'm not sure what executive order we're up to - condemning illegal immigration.

The theory is that illegal immigrants frequent cities with the most favorable executive orders. We're awaiting the research as we fondly remember matricula consular cards - a form of ID the state no longer recognizes.

The letter also demands that Denver cops get involved in immigration enforcement. Meaning, the next guy who is caught running a red light and doesn't have his license with him goes, I guess, to the lockup, where he waits for the immigration people - who do not show up for traffic stops.

Look, the hardest question of the day turned out to be what effect the proposed changes would, in fact, have on illegal immigration in Denver.

Bill Herron, who's proposing a Colorado initiative effort that would deny illegal immigrants any services not mandated by federal law, spoke at the rally. But he said he wouldn't answer the question.

Mike McGarry, of CAIR, said, "I don't know the results. Who can say what the results would be of a lot of things?"

He then offered this possibility: "If you squeeze out all the goodies, if you cut out the rides in the amusement park, people will start leaving."

He didn't say where they'd go. At this point, all we can guess is that it wouldn't be New Ipswich.

Mike Littwin's column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Call him at 303-892-5428 or e-mail him at littwinm@RockyMountainNews.com

I have news for you Mr. Littwin. Doing nothing is not the answer.
You are just another in a long of individuals who have reason after reason for doing nothing.