Denver, CO - Eleven state legislators from Colorado, members of the Republican Study Committee of Colorado (RSCC), are visiting Arizona this week to meet with their counterparts in the Arizona legislature. Members will be discussing SB-1070, current Arizona laws that apply to illegal immigration, and several other topics of common interest. RSCC members will be introducing legislation similar to SB-1070 in Colorado early next year. The following is the statement of Ricardo Perez, Vice President of the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition:
"We are wondering why the Colorado legislators decided to pick this time to go to Arizona and discuss their recent constitutional travesty. With immigration polling low on the list of voter concerns in Colorado, the Arizona trip appears to be more about election-year politics, and forcing immigration as a wedge issue, rather than anything of real public policy substance. If the delegation truly cares about fixing the broken immigration system, they should stop by the Arizona offices of Senator John McCain and Senator Jon Kyl and ask them to work with Congress to overhaul the broken immigration system. Both Arizona Senators previously supported comprehensive immigration reform, but have flip flopped in this election year, and are now working to obstruct any real federal immigration reform in 2010.
"Arizona legislators should have probably come to Colorado first, to talk about our own SB-90 law, a restrictive and unjust law that has been on the books here since 2006. SB-90 has failed to fix the broken immigration system, and only serves to drive a wedge between immigrant communities and local law enforcement, thus eroding community policing and trust.
"We hope that the delegation will witness first hand the complexities of the immigration issue in a border state and return to Colorado promoting comprehensive immigration reform at the federal level as the only realistic and workable solution, instead of a patchwork of chaotic state laws."
