The Colorado Compact is an empty pinata

Every so often, Coloradans are treated to the spectacle of a self-selected group of elite “opinion leaders” getting together and deciding what is good for Colorado. Then other citizens step forward and remind them that Coloradans have elections and legislatures to set public policy, not “compacts.”

The Colorado Compact for Immigration Fairness is a collection of platitudes, clichés and empty gestures. Yes, most of the platitudes are harmless enough, unobjectionable at a certain level of generality. Yet behind the honeyed language is a noticeable arrogance and a political agenda.

You will pardon me if I am not impressed by the “bipartisan” character of a group organized by Colorado’s Democratic senator who chairs the Senate Democratic Campaign Committee. ...

In attempting to “change the rhetoric,” the compact’s sponsors also want to confuse and obfuscate the inescapable policy choices confronting the nation as we grapple with illegal immigration...

What’s missing from the compact’s barrage of sweet platitudes is a respect for the rule of law...

In 2006, a special session of the General Assembly was called to derail a planned bipartisan ballot initiative on immigration enforcement. A ballot proposition similar to Arizona’s successful Proposition 200 — which has withstood every court challenge since it was enacted in 2004 — would have denied all public benefits to illegal “aliens.”¹...

CAIRCO Comments

At least the Denver Post published former Congressman Tancredo's commentary. However, we couldn't help but notice that the Post, in a Paravda-like finesse, changed all instances of the term aliens to "aliens". Seven occurrences of the term were changed in the article, which resulted in a distinctly different slant on the term than in the original article.

See CAIRCO Blog commentary: Creeping censorship at the Denver Post.

The original article is reprinted in its entirety below, with permission.

"The Colorado Compact: An Empty Pinata"

By Tom Tancredo
January 17, 2013

Every so often Coloradans are treated to the spectacle of a self-selected group of elite “opinion leaders” getting together and deciding what is good for Colorado. Then other citizens step forward and remind them that Coloradans have elections and legislatures to set public policy, not “Compacts.”

The “Colorado Compact for Immigration Fairness” is a collection of platitudes, clichés and empty gestures.  Yes, most of the platitudes are harmless enough, unobjectionable at a certain level of generality. Yet behind the honeyed language is a noticeable arrogance and a political agenda.

You will pardon me if I am not impressed by the “bipartisan” character of a group organized by the Democrat Senator who chairs the Senate Democratic Campaign Committee.  The group reminds me an awful lot of the “nonpartisan” group who wrote the Governor’s “TBD” proposals for neutering TABOR through “constitutional revision.”

In attempting to “change the rhetoric,” the compact’s sponsors also want to confuse and obfuscate the inescapable policy choices confronting the nation as we grapple with illegal immigration. In the view of the authors, Coloradans need not be concerned with the details of sticky problems like border security or five million visa overstays; we can just waive the magic wand of “fairness” and all those difficult issues disappear. How wonderful.

What’s missing from the Compact’s barrage of sweet platitudes is a respect for the rule of law. For example, if “family unity” is to be a principle that overrides all other considerations in civil and criminal law, should we stop taking drivers licenses away from drunk drivers if that poses a hardship on the family involved? It is more than a little hypocritical for “immigration rights” advocates to complain about the “anchor baby” label for children born to illegal aliens and then solemnly invoke “family unity” to provide legal immunity for those same children. 

In 2006, a special session of the General Assembly was called to derail a planned bipartisan ballot initiative on immigration enforcement. A ballot proposition similar to Arizona’s successful Proposition 200 – which has withstood every court challenge since it was enacted in 2004 – would have denied all public benefits to illegal aliens.

That 2006 ballot measure was dropped by its bipartisan sponsors when the Democrat-controlled legislature passed a package of bills that both Governor Owens and Democrat leaders called the “toughest in the nation.” Now Democrats in the General Assembly want to repeal some of those laws in advance of congressional immigration reform.

That genuinely bipartisan debate of 2006 and the proposed “Colorado Compact” differ in one obvious and decisive respect: the 2006 debate was honest and straightforward in talking about the problems posed in Colorado by the presence of over 100,000 of illegal aliens.  By contrast, in 2013 the authors of this “Compact” can talk only about “immigrants” while never mentioning illegal aliens. This is dishonest and insulting to Coloradans. The fact is, both terms, “immigrant” and “illegal aliens” are recognized and used widely in federal immigration law. We get nowhere by granting unlawful entrants the unearned title of “immigrant,” which is rightfully reserved in federal law for persons who respect our nation enough to follow its immigration laws.

Of course, all public debate on this matter is moot if President Obama can merely grant amnesty and legal work permits to any illegal alien by executive edict while ignoring the elected lawmakers in Congress.  Obama has set himself up as the final arbiter of “fairness,” and the Compact is oddly silent on this usurpation.

There are reasonable and fair solutions to the problem of massive illegal migration across our borders, but we can find them only through honest debate, not a sugar-coated subterfuge.

• We could take border security seriously as the 911 Commission recommended ten years ago and then tackle the problem of the 12-to-20 million illegal aliens already here.
• We could enact a federal mandatory E-Verify law to simplify workplace enforcement as recommended by Denver University’s 2009 report. 
• Or we could adopt the same level of fairness and humanitarian concern toward our illegal entrants as the sovereign nation of Mexico shows toward the illegal trespassers across its southern border and in its employment laws. That would be fair, wouldn’t it? 

By all means, let us be open to fair and equitable solutions to these problems. But they should be solutions that are fair to all Americans -- fair to legal immigrants and fair to citizens struggling to find jobs. What we don’t need is another blue ribbon committee blowing smoke in our eyes.