June 28, 2010 11:36 PM UTC

Hickenlooper Responds To "Sanctuary City" Tancredo Canard

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• by: Colorado Pols

As the Colorado Independent’s Joseph Boven reports:

Democratic candidate for governor John Hickenlooper defended himself last week against mounting accusations from Republicans that, as mayor, he has run Denver as a so-called sanctuary city, where illegal immigrants are directly and indirectly protected against federal immigration laws and possible deportation. It’s a charge that has gained traction in the weeks since Arizona lawmakers passed a controversial suite of immigration laws and as the move to remake federal immigration policy in Washington heats up.

“The city has never adopted any sort of ‘non-cooperation’ policy in regard to the enforcement of federal immigration laws or communications with federal officials in regard to immigration matters. Denver has and will continue to fully cooperate with and refer cases to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and has always complied with state and federal immigration law,” Eric Brown, spokesperson for the Mayor’s office, wrote to the Colorado Independent in an email.

Republican gubernatorial candidates Scott McInnis and Dan Maes are sure not to be satisfied. They’re following the lead of anti-illegal immigration firebrand and former congressman Tom Tancredo, who has repeatedly made the case that Denver simply won’t enforce the country’s immigration laws…

A letter drafted by Tancredo in 2008 and signed by Republican members of the legislature, including Rep. Cory Gardner and Sens. Dave Schultheis and Josh Penry, stated that Denver was out of compliance with CRS29-29-101, which obligates cities to report arrested illegal aliens to Immigrations and Customs officials whether or not the accused are ever incarcerated.

Last month on the Peter Boyles talk radio show said that Hickenlooper was dodging the sanctuary city charges. “He is being disingenuous, lying,” Tancredo said.

A list of people who have been arrested and referred by the city to Immigration and Customs officials contained 1,853 names for 2009 and 1,793 for 2010 so far.

Brown at the Mayor’s office said the city was in full compliance with the law.

We’re glad to see John Hickenlooper hitting back against the growing volume of cheap talk-radio innuendo being thrown at him. The “Denver sanctuary city” thing is kind of an odious misrepresentation, in addition to being false–but it’s a little more complicated to explain, making it a perfect vehicle for Tom Tancredo-style misuse.

Follow us for just a moment: you’re the mayor of a large American city. The odds are that you’re probably a Democrat, since that reflects the general voting preference of large American cities. And since American cities are major economic centers, they tend to attract all kinds of people seeking economic opportunity–including, naturally, illegal immigrants. We should all be able to agree that there are more illegal immigrants in Denver than Sedgwick, for example, because the entire population of Sedgwick could fit comfortably in a single city block of Denver (likewise, there are more illegal immigrants in New York City than Denver). Not to mention people arrested in Denver who work in the city but don’t live there.

As you can imagine, this is a situation ready-made for disingenuous GOP attacks. Inevitably, illegal immigrants are going to be picked up by the police. Once that happens, city authorities are required to notify federal immigration agents, and there the city’s responsibility necessarily ends. The city has no authority to force, for example, the feds to actually take custody of illegal immigrants. All they can do is comply with the reporting law, which they say they do with a figure cited. But who cares? Hickenlooper wanted to be mayor of Denver, didn’t he? And did you know that Denver has more illegal immigrants than anywhere else in the state? What an outrage!

Delivered with election season gusto, but it’s nothing more than Peter Boyles and Tancredo making a boogeyman out of whole cloth, per usual. And a basis in reality just gets in the way.