Colorado Lets Down Its DREAMers

--

Tuition equity' bill fails in Senate
By Tim Hoover
The Denver Post
Posted: 04/06/2009 03:41:35 PM MDT


The Colorado Senate today narrowly rejected a bill that would have allowed illegal immigrants in-state tuition after five Democrats joined with Republicans to vote against it.

A disappointed Sen. Chris Romer, the Denver Democrat who sponsored the bill, said it was hard for some lawmakers to support the bill in the current tough economic times.

"You don't make these decisions overnight," Romer said, adding that he would try to bring the legislation back next year.

Controversy had followed the legislation, Senate Bill 170, from its introduction all the way to the Senate floor. The bill only made it out of the Senate Appropriations Committee last week after Democrats called a meeting in the absence of one Republican member on the committee, setting off angry accusations from GOP senators that Democrats had pulled a sneaky maneuver to get the bill approved.

Today, though, Democrats delayed debate on the bill long enough to allow Sen. Jennifer Veiga, D-Denver, to make it back from the airport to participate in the debate.

Sen. Ted Harvey, the Republican who was absent from last week's Appropriations meeting while caring for an ailing family member, sarcastically applauded Democratic leadership for waiting for Veiga's arrival.

"I think it's great that we're getting back to the premise of senatorial courtesy," said Harvey, R-Highlands Ranch.

The bill would have allowed any student who had attended a Colorado high school for at least three years and graduated to attend public colleges and universities at the in-state tuition rate, regardless of their immigration status.

Similar bills had failed in previous years, but this year's legislation had the backing of some top Republicans, including Alex Cranberg, chairman of Aspect Energy and a top GOP donor; and Dick Monfort, co-owner of the Colorado Rockies and chairman of the University of Northern Colorado Board of Trustees.

Republicans argued that the bill would run afoul of a 1996 federal law that prohibits illegal immigrants from getting college benefits that are not available to all U.S. citizens. However, nine other states have passed laws allowing in-state tuition to illegal immigrants, and whether the federal law specifically prohibits that practice has not been squarely decided in court.

A challenge to a similar law in California is now pending in that state's supreme court.

Proponents of the Colorado bill said that children of illegal immigrants had no say in their coming to the United States and should not be punished by being required to pay out-of-state tuition, which is two to four times higher than the in-state rate.

Romer said a "cancer of hopelessness" exists among such students, who can't afford college.

Sen. Abel Tapia, D-Pueblo, said his Hispanic ancestors had come to Colorado generations ago, but he said all newcomers had the right to aspire to be something more than "ditchdiggers and dishwashers."

And in an at times angry speech, Senate President Peter Groff, a Denver Democrat and one of only two blacks in the legislature, hearkened to the civil-rights era and to the country's "dark past."

"I hope we can live with ourselves if we vote 'no' today," Groff said, accusing those who opposed the bill of not having the "courage" to do the right thing.

Sen. Joyce Foster, a Denver Democrat who is the descendant of Jewish immigrants, invoked the Holocaust and appealed to senators' compassion.

"I understand rules, and I understand laws, but sometimes we have to think with our hearts," Foster said, "and I beg you today to think with our hearts."

But Republicans said Democrats' compassion was misplaced. They said Democrats lacked a sense of fairness because foreign students who entered the country legally could not receive the in-state rate.

"By rewarding those people who come here illegally with government services, we will only beget more illegal behavior in the future," Harvey said.

A Republican amendment to give all foreign students the in-state rate failed as did another that would have given the lower rate to all students in Colorado.

Sen. Bill Cadman, R-Colorado Springs, said that granting students who are illegal immigrants in-state tuition was like saying "if their parents robbed a bank, their kids could keep the money."

Though the bill would require students who get the in-state tuition rate to sign an affidavit stating they would seek legal residency, Sen. Mike Kopp, R-Littleton, said the affidavit "is worth probably less than the paper it's printed on."

In hopes of attracting more Democratic votes, proponents added an amendment that said the bill would only become effective upon passage of the federal DREAM Act. That measure being considered in Congress would provide a path to citizenship to illegal immigrants who serve in the military or attend college in the United States.

It wasn't enough. Democratic Sens. Morgan Carroll of Aurora, Jim Isgar of Hesperus, Moe Keller of Wheat Ridge, Linda Newell of Littleton and Lois Tochtrop of Thornton voted against the bill.

Carroll, after the debate, referred reporters to a statement on her website that said she could not support the bill "in a climate where the state is cutting or eliminating over $1 billion of benefits to the people and is facing a $300 million cut to higher education, which virtually ends higher education as we know it in the state of Colorado."

Isgar and Tochtrop made similar comments about cuts to colleges, while Keller declined comment on her vote.

Newell, who was elected in November by a razor-thin margin, simply said "I listened to my constituents" when asked about her vote. link

Tim Hoover: 303-954-1626 or thoover@denverpost.com

Intolerance Can Take a Life of It's Own

The news is that Tom Selders was not re-elected to his third term as mayor of Greeley, Colorado, supposedly because he showed empathy for the undocumented immigrants. After a large raid at the Swift Meatpacking Plant, he publicly stated that "Many families and children were devastated by parents being arrested and detained," Selders said. "Children -- citizens of the United States -- were left without parents."

Many of his constituents were enraged with him. The anger increased when he agreed to speak at an anti-immigrant rally in Washington D.C. so he could speak to pro-immigrant organizations.

He lost his voter base and Latino voters did not stand behind him because he is a Republican and he is Anglo. It's kind of shame that this kind of thing can happen. The narrow vision that brings intolerance is blinding us.

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-greeley27nov27,0,7819636.story?coll=la-home-center
From the Los Angeles Times
Mayor's reelection backlash
Greeley, Colo., boots him after he spoke at an immigration forum.
By Nicholas Riccardi
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

November 27, 2007

GREELEY, COLO. — Tom Selders is still baffled at how quickly the city he served for years turned on him.

The two-term mayor of this conservative farm town had been a political fixture for nearly two decades. A businessman who prided himself on bringing efficiency to city government, Selders infuriated his constituents after jumping into the national debate over illegal immigration. In May he spoke at an open forum in Washington, D.C., about the effects of last year's immigration raid on a meatpacking plant here, which led to the detention of 262 undocumented workers.

"Many families and children were devastated by parents being arrested and detained," Selders said. "Children -- citizens of the United States -- were left without parents."

The reaction in Greeley, whose Latino population has nearly tripled since 1980, was swift and furious. Selders, who was seeking a third term as mayor, was overwhelmed with angry calls. He became a regular target on local talk radio. A mailer linking him to illegal immigrant gang members flooded mailboxes.

Earlier this month Selders was ousted from the nonpartisan post, losing to a retired police officer by a 3-2 margin.

"I really feel betrayed by my community," said Selders, 61. "There's a big contingent of people in this community who are just full of anger and hate about illegal immigration, and that anger and hate has been transferred to me."

What happened to Selders, a lifelong Republican, is a cautionary tale of the politics of illegal immigration. To some, it shows how a good man trying to do the right thing was taken down by the forces of intolerance. To others, it shows what can happen to elitist politicians who dismiss voters' frustrations over unchecked illegal immigration. "A lot of people in Weld County remained silent" as people like Selders criticized the December 2006 raid, said County Dist. Atty. Kenneth R. Buck, who supported Selders' opponent. "They don't want to be called racist, they don't want their business to be boycotted. . . . There were a lot of people who were waiting to be heard in their anonymous way."

Greeley, founded in 1869 by a newspaper reporter who followed fabled New York editor Horace Greeley's admonition of "go west, young man," is a city split in two.

The more prosperous western side has subdivisions with names like "Promontory" or "Glen Meadows." The largely Latino eastern side consists mainly of weathered Victorians, mobile homes and trailers. Looming over these working-class neighborhoods is the massive Swift & Co. meatpacking plant.

As an agricultural hub, Greeley has long had Latino residents. But the Latino population soared in recent decades as the meatpacking industry shifted to an immigrant-heavy workforce. Latinos now make up about one-third of the city's 90,000 residents.

Now signs in City Hall are bilingual. One in five Greeley elementary school students needs help speaking or reading English. Critics blame illegal immigrants for part of the $36 million a year in uncollected bills at the local hospital, and a 73% rise in violent crime since 2000.

"Businesses are shutting down, our professional people are leaving to find a better place," said Joy Breuer, an opponent of illegal immigration who runs a shelter for the homeless. "This town used to be one of the most beautiful places to live in Colorado."

By his own admission, Selders rarely ventured into the eastern half of town while growing up on the west side. He left Greeley to study chemistry at college in Boulder. He moved back after serving a stint in Vietnam as a naval officer, and quickly founded a company that built bridges and culverts.

It wasn't until 1990 that Selders tasted local politics. He joined the Parks and Recreation Commission. The city was planning to close a public pool on the eastern end of town. "I said, 'Wait, isn't this the part of town where we want recreation facilities,' " he recalled.

The city reversed its decision, and Selders was hooked on public service. He served two terms on the City Council, then, after selling his stake in the construction business and starting a small computer firm, he was elected mayor in 2003.

Selders made a point of going to the east side and meeting with community groups. "For the first time we had someone we could call on, and he'd respond," said immigrant rights activist Ricardo Romero.

In November 2005, after winning his second two-year term, Selders and the rest of the City Council refused to follow Dist. Atty. Buck in demanding the federal government open an Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Greeley. Selders feared it would lead to racial profiling, a stance that angered many here.

On the morning of Dec. 12, 2006, Selders was in his home office when the city manager called -- federal immigration agents were raiding the Swift meatpacking plant. The workers were accused of stealing or buying identities and Social Security numbers to secure jobs.

Spouses and children converged on the plant for news of whether their relatives had been arrested or deported. Local charities raised tens of thousands of dollars for families whose breadwinners were jailed.

Selders regretted the raid's impact on the workers' families as well as on the city's largest business. Swift had complied with a federal program to verify its workers Social Security numbers, yet it still lost millions of dollars because of the disruption. But Selders stayed quiet.

"These things can take on a life of their own," he said. "I felt it was better to not say a lot."

In May, a local church-based group asked Selders to speak to pro-immigrant organizations in Washington, D.C., that lobby for immigration reform. He decided that he had an obligation to go. "I felt it was the right thing to do," he said.

He put out a news release about the trip; he felt compelled to tell his constituents. The morning he left, the Greeley Tribune ran a story about the trip on its front page. The calls -- all negative -- began pouring in before Selders touched down at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. They picked up after he backed a Senate immigration reform proposal the next day that critics labeled amnesty. Selders immediately realized he was in danger of losing his mayor's job

His challenger was Ed Clark, a former police officer who works as a school security guard. Clark hammered Selders on the city's crime rate, which he tied to illegal immigration.

In August, Buck, who supported Clark, held a forum on the need for an ICE office, drawing several hundred people who heard him speak of the link between crime and illegal immigrants. He and Clark estimated that 10% to 15% of the crimes in the town were committed by undocumented immigrants.

Fliers critical of Selders were mailed to voters. One had a photo depicting gang members flashing signs. The caption read: "Tom Selders is good for business." Clark and Buck said they had nothing to do with the fliers.

After beating Selders, Clark said, "I have seen over the years a growing presence of Mexican nationals and illegal immigrants that are starting to join the gangs here. I'm not going to let this take root." Selders was partly the victim of an anti-incumbent wave in Greeley. Another council member was defeated and a third survived by a few dozen votes. But even Selders' backers said crime and illegal immigration led to his downfall.

"People are angry enough with all the gangs in town, and they feel Mr. Selders didn't do much to stop that," said Jan Boedigheimer, an underwriter who voted for the former mayor. She knew he would lose, and termed his trip to Washington "career suicide."

Selders' wife, Sandi, said she wasn't surprised he was blindsided by the hostility. "It's hard for Tom to understand a difference of opinion," she said. "He really does believe that good will triumph, and it doesn't always."

Before handing over the mayor's office to Clark the week after the election, Selders drove around the eastern neighborhoods he felt were defamed in the campaign. He went past the hulking Swift plant. Signs in Spanish advertised for 1,300 new workers. He gestured at the small, tidy homes.

"Nothing wrong with these places," Selders said. "They're just not very big."

Opponents of illegal immigration are elated to see Selders go. "Now it's going to change," Breuer said. "People who don't want to follow the laws will get out of here."

Immigrants rights activists in Greeley are still in a state of shock and wonder whether they missed a chance to help a rare ally. Selders' campaign got some support in the heavily Latino neighborhoods, said activist Sylvia Martinez. "People didn't believe [in Selders] because he is white, because he is a Republican, because he is a businessman," she said. "I don't think a lot of people believed he was running for his life."

nicholas.riccardi@latimes.com