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Two sides claim victory in immigration fight
Supporters, opponents see large impact

By Myung Oak Kim, Rocky Mountain News
March 28, 2006
Both sides in the volatile immigration debate say huge rallies in Denver and cities across the country in recent days have galvanized their campaigns.
"It's a very exciting time," said Rachel Olivarez-Sellers, chairwoman of the Latino Initiative of the Colorado Democratic Party, who reported a boost in voter registration interest since the rallies.

It was exciting for foes of illegal immigration as well.

NumbersUSA, a national advocacy group, said it got almost 4,500 new members since Saturday, about 50 percent more than normal.

In Colorado, organizers of a ballot initiative to deny state services to illegal immigrants also claim to have received dozens of calls and e-mails from new supporters.

"The more brazen (the protests), the better it is for us," said Mike McGarry, acting director of the Colorado Alliance for Immigration Reform.

But a coalition of local and national immigrant rights groups points to the Monday passage of a friendlier immigration reform bill in the Senate Judiciary Committee as proof of the power of the massive protests, including the 50,000 people who marched in Denver and 500,000 in Los Angeles on Saturday.

The protests clearly have launched the illegal immigration debate to the top of the public agenda "for keeps," said John Straayer, a political science professor at Colorado State University.

The issue is now inescapable, Straayer said. "Even a year ago it didn't have the prominence it has now."

This won't be the end, either.

The protests are "a predictor of more to come," Straayer said.

A large coalition of pro-immigrant groups is planning a "Day of Action" April 10 across the country. Details of the Colorado event have not been decided.

Momentum for rallies like the one in Denver began building in December. That's when the House passed HR 4437, known as the Sensenbrenner bill, after sponsor Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wis. That bill would create a 700-mile fence along the Mexican border and turn undocumented foreigners and agencies that aid them into felons.

"It really is breathtaking how over the top and how much they overreached with that legislation," said Douglas Rivlin, a spokesman for the National Immigration Forum, a longtime national advocacy group for immigrant rights. "Tom Tancredo and Jim Sensenbrenner really kicked over a beehive with the legislation."

Immigrant rights supporters got some mobilizing practice when members of the Minuteman Project, a volunteer border security group, protested outside day labor centers across the country. Those demonstrations, including one in January at a Denver day labor center, drew more counterprotesters than Minutemen.

The debate also is playing out in the state legislature.

Republicans have floated a number of illegal immigration bills this year. Most of them were rejected. Still alive are measures that would, among other things, crack down on human smugglers and require would-be state contractors to certify that they don't employ illegal immigrants.

A group called Defend Colorado Now hopes to put a proposal to voters in November that would deny services not mandated by the federal government to illegal immigrants. That initiative has been challenged, and a decision by the state Supreme Court is expected within a week or two.

The rallies put a face on the debate and -fueled passions on both sides.

"We can't continue on this path, or we may lose this country," said Bay Buchanan, chairman of Team America, a political action committee founded by U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Littleton, that opposes leniency toward illegal immigrants.

"This has moved . . . the debate dramatically," she said. "It is much more tense now."

State Rep. Dave Schultheis, R-Colorado Springs, said Republican lawmakers are angered by the rallies.

"It's increasing the resolve among the Republican legislators . . . to hang firm on this issue," he said.

Groups advocating a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants say the demonstrations are the seeds of a powerful civil rights movement with growing support from a wide spectrum of groups.

The most prominent local black organization, the Greater Metropolitan Denver Ministerial Alliance, attended Saturday's rally. On Monday, the Rev. Patrick Demmer, a member of the alliance, donned toy handcuffs with about 100 ministers from around the country during a demonstration in Washington.

"This is a continuation of the civil rights struggle," Demmer said. "If we can offset some of the mean-spirited ideologies of Tancredo, I'm happy to be here to offset it."

Olivarez-Sellers, the Democratic organizer, has been working since December to register Hispanic voters in Weld and Morgan counties. She said she received more than 160 e-mails Monday - almost three times her usual daily count - from people who say the protests have inspired them to get politically active and vote.



kimm@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-2361.