The Colorado GOP sent a delegation of lawmakers to Phoenix on Tuesday to seek advice on how to proceed with anti-immigration legislation similar to SB 1070.
Colorado is the latest in a string of states to send lawmakers to Arizona this summer looking to copy the states controversial anti-immigration law. Yesterday La Plaza reported Alabama is also looking to adopt similar legislation. Tennessee and Utah have each sent their own delegation to Arizona this summer.
Rep. Kent Lambert is one of 11 members of Colorado’s Republican Study Committee who are meeting with Arizona legislators this week. He claims Colorado’s economy is suffering because of illegal immigration.
“We have sort of the backfield problems with employment, jobs, and unemployment and picking up the costs of health care and things like that which seem to fall upon the state of Colorado,” said Lambert.
One of the issues the Republican delegation will seek guidance on is how Arizona is defending its bill in court.
Last month a federal judge barred some of the most controversial parts of the law from going into effect just one day before the law was enacted. That included the section that would require officers to check a person’s immigration status while enforcing other laws if they have “reasonable suspicion” that the person is in the country illegally.
This wouldn’t be the first time the state proposes strict immigration laws. In 2006, Republican Sen. Ted Harvey sponsored an aggressive immigration measure that passed during a special session with Democrats in the majority. Harvey says said Republicans next year are “definitely going to push immigration reform that takes seriously the impact that illegal immigration has on the state budget.”
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