By Nicholas Riccardi,
Los Angeles Times
8:40 PM PDT, July 11, 2006
Denver -- The passage of 11 anti-illegal immigrant measures by a special session of the Colorado Legislature this week is just the latest sign that momentum in the volatile debate is on the side of hard-liners.
Earlier this year, immigrant-rights groups were encouraged when the Democrat-controlled Legislature rejected several bills that party leaders characterized as extremist. Spring featured the largest political rallies Colorado had ever seen, as 75,000 immigrants marched in front of the state Capitol demanding amnesty.
But late Monday, the Colorado Legislature approved a ban on non-emergency state services to adults who fail to prove they are in the country legally, a measure modeled on a broader law that Georgia adopted in April. Democrats here began boasting that their measure was now the toughest in the nation.
"We're helping set a precedent where states will step in and deal with a problem the federal government won't solve," said Fred Elbel, director of Defend Colorado Now, which backed a ballot measure to restrict benefits to illegal immigrants.
The Colorado legislation, along with tough anti-illegal immigration bills passed in other states, has unnerved activists.
"It's a sad day for Colorado when our Democratic majority Legislature brags about new laws that would lead to people being cut off from aid," said Bill Vandenberg of the Colorado Progressive Coalition.
"Every election year needs a scapegoat, and this year ... it's beating up on illegal immigrants," said Vandenberg, who helped organize the immigrant marches.
In Washington, Congress is split over immigration reform. The House of Representatives passed a border enforcement-only that includes a 700-mile fence along the U.S.-Mexico border. The Senate's bill includes enforcement measures, but also a guest worker program that would provide a path to citizenship for many of the 12 million illegal immigrants in the country. Polls have shown the population is similarly divided over illegal immigration, but that hard-liners are more motivated.
That appears to be borne out in statehouses, where more than 400 anti-illegal immigration measures were proposed this year. The vast majority failed, but at least a dozen states passed some sort of laws targeting illegal immigration. Louisiana approved a law stiffening penalties for businesses that hire illegals. Wyoming barred undocumented students from receiving some scholarships, while Missouri denied unemployment benefits to workers who aren't citizens. And states such as Pennsylvania and Maryland are considering benefit cuts modeled on those in Colorado and Georgia, which are the most far-reaching.
State lawmakers engage in largely symbolic actions when they pass those cuts because federal law already prohibits illegals from accessing public aid, said Tanya Bruder, an attorney at the National Immigration Law Center. "They're sending a message to constituents that they're doing something about illegal immigration," she said.
Bruder said the main effect of the new laws would be to discourage people, such as legal immigrants, from applying for government aid. Momentum is clearly building for such measures, Bruder added. "I'm getting more calls from people in other states saying there's more pressure, not only from Republicans but from Democrats," she said.
Indeed, Democratic State Senate President Joan FitzGerald smiled widely when a reporter said at a news conference Tuesday morning that "you're now the party of 'tough on immigration.' "
FitzGerald joked to the press corps: "Thank you, did you all get that?" She and the speaker of the Colorado Assembly, Democrat Andrew Romanoff, however, denied that they had compromised their party's beliefs.
"We were not railroaded into passing anything that betrayed our principles," Romanoff said, noting that Democrats killed a number of stiffer anti-illegal immigrant measures proposed by Republicans.
Democrats were forced into the special session by a confluence of political forces. The State Supreme Court last month struck from the November ballot the measure backed by Defend Colorado Now. Republican Gov. Bill Owens, who had a reputation as an immigration moderate, demanded that the Legislature convene and put the measure back on the ballot.
Democrats resisted, pointing out that they had passed bills on illegal immigration in the regular session, such as stiffer penalties for human traffickers. But they gave in after political pressure escalated: Republicans hammered them for being soft on illegal immigration. Some political analysts warned they could lose their legislative majority over the issue. And the party's candidate for governor, Attorney General Bill Ritter, received a barrage of attack ads from his GOP rival.
The attacks continued during the special session when an anti-illegal immigrant group made recorded calls bashing Democrats on the issue.
Most Republicans wanted to place the benefits cut on the fall ballot where they thought it could help them retake the statehouse. Instead, some joined with Democrats to pass the bill denying non-emergency benefits, such as Medicare and unemployment insurance, to adults who can't prove they are in Colorado legally. It creates a maximum 18-month jail term for falsifying documents and, like the Georgia legislation, exempts treatment for communicable diseases from the benefits ban.
During the five-day session, which began Thursday, the Legislature also passed a bill requiring employers to demonstrate their workers are in the country legally. Legislators passed a law making it a felony to knowingly vote illegally. They placed on the November ballot two measures, one that would bar employers from receiving state tax breaks if they hire illegals, and another to sue the federal government to force compliance with immigration laws.
State officials say about 1 million Coloradans will be required to prove their legal residence to get benefits when the law takes effect Aug. 1. Though some Democrats insisted that the benefit cut is mainly symbolic, immigrant advocates said it will increase fear in the community. "More people are going to be staying away from (medical) clinics, staying away from calling police when they really need to," said Kristen Sharp, an organizer with Padres Unidos, a group of immigrant parents of school children.
That has already happened in Georgia, where the benefit cut, coupled with stiff employment sanctions do not take place until July of 2007. Some real estate agents report that Latino interest in home-buying has dipped -- undocumented immigrants are wary of making the commitments because they fear losing their jobs.
The Republican politician most identified with harsher immigration reform, Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo, said the move by local Democrats shows how politicians must take hard stands on illegal immigration to win elections. "They're all trying to out-Tancredo Tancredo," he said.
Times staff writer Richard Fausset in Atlanta contributed to this report.
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