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Campaign Updates>
PENRY: Crack Down on Illegal Immigration
July 6, 2006
COLORADO'S OPPORTUNITY TO DO WHAT CONGRESS WON'T -- CRACK
DOWN ON ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION
When the Colorado General Assembly convenes in a Special
Session this Thursday to consider an array of proposals to
crack down on illegal immigration, it will have a chance to
put Colorado at the forefront of the national push to get
serious about addressing America’s illegal immigration
crisis.
And it’s about time.
Yes, illegal immigration is at root a national problem that
will require bold action by the federal government. I am
personally outraged that Congress continues to fiddle while
our border remains wide open to illegal immigration, human
trafficking, a surging Mexican Methamphetamine trade, and
the strong possibility that foreign terrorists are entering
our country unfettered. I marvel at a homeland security
policy that rightly invests tens of billions of dollars
each year to protect airports, sea-ports, and major ports
of entry from terrorists and the weapons they would use to
harm us, only to leave our backdoor border wide open to the
same ominous security threats.
So whom do we blame? I believe blame belongs to every
Republican and Democrat in Washington, DC who have let the
imperative of a secure border in this post 9/11 world get
side-tracked by proposals for immigration amnesty and a new
expanded guest worker program.
Everyone agrees the border needs to be secure – first,
foremost and above all. And I have yet to talk to a single
state legislator or member of Congress who isn’t open to
new approaches focused on plugging holes in America’s labor
supply chain to protect small businesses. But that
discussion is complicated and will take time to construct
so as not to generate the same unintended consequences that
similar measures have unleashed in the past. Congress can
and should continue to debate a guestworker program (no
amnesty allowed), but it should pass meaningful border
security first. No more waiting, no more debating, no more
talking – it’s time for Republicans and Democrats in
Congress to protect our border.
Which brings us back to Colorado, and the Special Session
that begins this Thursday. While Congress fiddles,
Colorado is getting to work. We can’t eliminate the
problem by ourselves, but we can mitigate its symptoms in a
real way.
Governor Owens, at the urging of many legislators including
me, called the Special Session after the Colorado Supreme
Court nixed a citizen’s initiative aimed at blocking
welfare and other non-emergency government services to
illegal immigrants. In a ruling that was so poorly
reasoned
that even opponents of the initiative slammed it, the
Supreme Court ruled that the initiative violated Colorado’s
single subject rule. The ruling was a judicial fiction,
representing the worst kind of judicial activism – the
kind where a handful of judges contort the plain meaning of
the law to prevent voters from speaking collectively on an
issue of great public interest and consequence.
But instead of sitting back and letting 4 Supreme Court
Justices thwart this critical debate, the Governor and the
Legislature decided to play our Constitutional trump card –
a Special Session and a Referendum. The goal of the
Special Session is straightforward – to address the alleged
single subject shortcomings in the measure denying
government services to illegals, and refer that measure
back to the voters this November. The Special Session will
also give venue for the consideration of a host of other
proposals to beef up enforcement, create better
coordination between state law enforcement and federal
immigration authorities, and improve the verifiability of
our state’s identification tools to aid employers and
elections officials. I am a sponsoring a number of such
measures.
All of these important proposals will push Colorado into an
aggressive posture against illegal immigration, but in the
end this Special Session will only be a success if the
Legislature gives citizens the right to vote on the measure
denying taxpayer subsidies to those who break our
immigration laws. It is, after all, the reason the Special
Session was called in the first place.
In the run up to this important legislative debate, some
have argued that the illegal immigration crisis is really
no crisis at all. This political camp suggests that
because government can’t produce an exact accounting of
how much Colorado spends on services to illegal immigrants,
it would be too hasty to act.
That logic is about as contrived and unconvincing as the
Colorado Supreme Court’s.
The truth is, it is exceedingly difficult to put an exact
price tag on illegal immigration in Colorado because the
problem is so pervasive and large. But for those who doubt
the severity of the problem, consider these numbers:
According to a 2005 study by the Center for Immigration
Studies, in Colorado 11% of households headed by an illegal
immigrant get food assistance, 12% are on Medicaid, and 18%
are using a major welfare program.
While estimates vary, it is widely accepted that our prison
population consists of anywhere between 5 and 10% illegal
immigrants.
Defend Colorado Now – the group formed to push the citizens
initiative barring government subsidies to illegal
residents – estimates that Colorado spends upwards of $1
billion each year on services to illegal immigrants.
Even a group opposing the ballot measure produced a study
showing that Colorado’s net financial loss to the illegal
immigration problem is about $30 million – a gross
underestimate, but a significant amount of money still.
At the same time, certain leaders in the Democratic
majority in the Colorado Legislature have actually proposed
expanding benefits to illegal residents in recent years, in
particular proposing to subsidize college tuition. The
Colorado Democrat Party’s 2006 platform itself calls for a
number of such expanded services to illegal residents.
Given all of these things, clearly the time is now to put
this issue to rest. Now is the time to permanently end
taxpayer subsidy of non-emergency programs to those who
break our immigration laws.
If the Legislature refers a measure to the voters that
would accomplish this objective, it will have made
important progress during this Special Session,
while sending a powerful message that Colorado is serious
about addressing its share of America’s illegal immigration
crisis, even if Congress is not.
Josh Penry
State Representative
House District 54
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