Arizona-Like, Legislation Being Prepared For Colorado

Following in Arizona’s immigration footsteps, a Colorado Springs lawmaker has begun the process of introducing a bill in the Colorado General Assembly.

Republican State Rep. Kent Lambert has reserved a bill title for the proposal, and Legislative Legal Services is in the process of reviewing the proposal draft.  The State Rep. is sure that when the Legislature resumes in January his proposal will meet its legal requirements.

Believing Arizona’s SB1070 will uphold, Kent believes the same of his proposal claiming that the injunctions issued on ‘1070 are not a matter of constitutionality, but that the affected portions of the law were pre-empted by federal law and legal precedent.

‘If they want to debate constitutionality, there are arguing points on both sides,’ Lambert said, ‘but to mischaracterize the judge’s ruling as a matter of constitutionality is not legally accurate. I believe it’s on firm constitutional footing.’

A federal court ruled that portions of the Arizona law, SB1070 were to be put on hold with injunctions issued on the enforcement of parts of the law, which required state and local enforcement agencies to ask for proof of citizenship of anyone they suspected of being in the country illegally. It would also require naturalized immigrants to constantly carry around documents to validate their legal residence in the U.S.

Representative Sal Pace (D-Pueblo) said he views Arizona’s law encroaches on the rights of everyone, including American citizens, if law enforcement wrongly presumes a person to be in the U.S. illegally based on appearance, accent, or other similar factors.

‘The 14th Amendment is at stake here,’ Pace stated. ‘The equal protection clause and the due process clause, in my opinion.’ Also, believing the Republican proposal to be potentially costly, Pace assured, ‘They’re pushing a bill that is destined to end up in court just like the Arizona law has. We’d see the same thing happen here in Colorado We need a Colorado solution, not an Arizona solution.’

Lambert and Pace agree that Legislative Legal Services would not go ahead with something that is unconstitutional, but Lambert states, ‘The bill I intend to introduce most certainly isn’t.’