Defend Colorado Now endorses statutory solution

Supports Georgia-style immigration reform legislation

June 27, 2006

June 27, 2006 (Lakewood, CO): On June 26, 2006, the Colorado Supreme Court denied petitions to rehear the Defend Colorado Now (DCN) case, thus denying voters the right to vote on how their tax dollars are spent. Dick Lamm, former governor of Colorado, stated that "The Court tried to modify its embarrassingly inadequate legal reasoning by substituting other inadequate and embarrassingly political reasoning. Black robes can not conceal political activism in the Court."

Both Defend Colorado Now and Keep Colorado Safe support a statutory solution to the problem of illegal immigration. Key to this solution is verifying the legal status of applicants for employment and public assistance.

To achieve this purpose, we are asking the Colorado General Assembly to pass, and the governor to sign, a law modeled on Sections 7, 8 and 9 of the Georgia Security and Immigration Compliance Act. This approach would be more effective and more practical than Initiative 55. The legislature and the governor can and should enact such a law in a special session. We urge them to do so now, rather than delay a vote until November.

"The ultimate goals of the initiative were to curtail illegal immigration and ensure Colorado taxpayer dollars are directed toward those lawfully in Colorado. A comprehensive legislative solution can accomplish both objectives," stated DCN co-chair Fred Elbel.

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Addendum: This does not preclude DCN's support of the Governor calling a special legislative session to refer the initiative to the voters. Either a referred initiative or comprehensive legislation will help achieve our objectives of curtailing illegal immigration and ensuring that Colorado taxpayer dollars are spent on those lawfully in Colorado.

(See this overview of Georgia immigration reform legislation and also see this overview with references).

Defend Colorado Now is a 2006 citizens' initiative to amend the Colorado constitution to deny non-emergency public services to persons unlawfully in Colorado.

Contact:
Fred Elbel, Defend Colorado Now
PO Box 280289, Lakewood, CO 80228

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