Latinos Slam Hickenlooper's "Path To Citizenship" Dismissal

15 Comments

by: Colorado Pols

Gov. John Hickenlooper.

As FOX 31's Eli Stokols reports, the controversy over Gov. John Hickenlooper's remarks earlier this week, in which he appeared to dismiss the aspirations of immigrants to obtain American citizenship, appears to be growing. After giving Hickenlooper a suitable period to retract his comments, the Colorado Latino Forum has run out of patience, issuing a strongly-worded statement this afternoon:

As the nation's Hispanic community Friday celebrated President Obama's executive order sparing 5 million undocumented immigrants from deportation, Colorado Latinos expressed their frustration with another politician — the state's Democratic governor…

"The Colorado Latino Forum is extremely disappointed in Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper's recent statement regarding Latinos and citizenship," the statement began.

"The Colorado Latino Forum has long underscored that access to a path to citizenship is a key value that must be included in any meaningful future comprehensive immigration reform package that Congress debates.

"We are disappointed that immediately following his narrow re-election in which our community voted overwhelmingly for Governor Hickenlooper, his first comments regarding Latino issues demonstrate that he is out of touch with our community's priorities and values."

What we've heard is that just about every Latino interest and immigrant rights group in the state has called Gov. Hickenlooper's office to express their displeasure over what he said, and there has been no satisfactory response. The fact is, an eventual pathway to American citizenship for otherwise law-abiding, long term immigrants is a central goal of immigration reform proponents–who are deeply skeptical of the various "guest worker" programs that have been proposed as alternatives. We don't think Hickenlooper was trying to disparage immigrants' motives, but his statement that the "vast majority" of immigrants simply want to "get paid over the table" and "don't care about a pathway to citizenship" could be interpreted disparagingly. Either way, it's directly at odds with what immigration reformers are advocating for.

Whatever his intentions, this comment — and a wealthy, white politician purporting to tell a minority community what they really want — isn’t sitting well with Colorado’s Latino community…

Bottom line: the pressure may be off Hickenlooper electorally for four years, but since his re-election we've been wondering if that might result in more rigorous accountability from his left–on a variety of issues where Hickenlooper has run afoul of base Democrats, or even good politics. There has been a tendency this election season to pull punches on Hickenlooper, so as to not assist Bob Beauprez's campaign.

As of today, it looks like Hickenlooper's second honeymoon is over.

15 thoughts on “Latinos Slam Hickenlooper’s “Path To Citizenship” Dismissal”

Gilpin Guy says:

November 21, 2014 at 4:33 pm

Careless and callous. Hickenlooper should know better by now.

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1. Diogenesdemar says:
  
  November 21, 2014 at 5:13 pm
  
  Not "careless," I'm beginning to think "care less."
  
  Looper's cultivated that "goofy, nice guy" persona so well that he gets away with this crap unquestioned.
  
  (For some reason telling myself over and over that BWB would have been worse isn't helping any more . . .)
  
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Zappatero says:

November 21, 2014 at 4:35 pm

the guy is really clueless on a number of things. The complete, abject, off-the-charts craziness of the Republican Party and its chosen nominees is probably the main reason he has this job…..a job we can rest easy knowing he will never be promoted from.

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1. Gilpin Guy says:
  
  November 21, 2014 at 4:45 pm
  
  Too bad there isn't an alternative to Bennett. I was really disappointed by his Keystone vote. Hello Mike. If you say climate change is a bad thing then why on earth would you vote to accelerate it? But there aren't any Democrats besides Betsy Markey who want to run against him so we'll have another worthless election between a dud and a disaster. Bummer dude.
  
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  1. Zappatero says:
    
    November 21, 2014 at 5:05 pm
    
    there used to be some D's in this state that weren't afraid of their own shadow….another one would be nice.
    
    Merrifield for Governor!
    
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    1. FrankUnderwood says:
      
      November 21, 2014 at 5:40 pm
      
      Dudley Brown who shit in his pants!
      
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Conserv. Head Banger says:

November 21, 2014 at 5:45 pm

The Governor may not have been politically correct for the far left in his remarks. However, my impression of the self-proclaimed Latino community spokespersons is that they are really advocating for an open border.

The problem won't be solved by deporting over 11 million people as advocated by some narrow-minded and head-in-sand righties. Obama has started the ball rolling and we'll see if the Congressional Republicans are up to doing something constructive for a change. C.H.B.

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DawnPatrol says:

November 21, 2014 at 6:18 pm

WTF? Another unforced error by an individual who until very recently more or less had the political world by the tail, and was destined potentially for some level of national greatness. Why all the easily avoided, self-inflicted wounds, governor?

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1. BlueCat says:
  
  November 21, 2014 at 11:42 pm
  
  Rumors of Hick's potential for national greatness have always been greatly exaggerated.
  
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  1. Zappatero says:
    
    November 22, 2014 at 7:43 am
    
    +++
    
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  2. The realist says:
    
    November 22, 2014 at 11:05 am
    
    Exactly.
    
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  3. DawnPatrol says:
    
    November 22, 2014 at 11:12 am
    
    Nevertheless, the Beltway punditocracy some time ago officially labeled him an "up and comer" and "rising Democratic star from a purple western state." I simply want to know why he's working so hard to eradicate that perception.
    
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Zappatero says:

November 21, 2014 at 7:14 pm

hey, Pols, it wasn't only Latinos slamming Hick's latest stupidity…it was me (a middle-aged, balding, less overweight than last year, white guy) and a bunch of other people not in his "target" list, along with those he insulted so egregiously.

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1. Sunmusing says:
  
  November 22, 2014 at 6:57 am
  
  you got is Zap…As an OWG, with many undocumented friends, I am very disappointed with the Frack's statements…I held my nose and voted for him, knowing the alternative would be much worse…I put forth the name Millie Hamner, as an extremely smart and capable Congresswoman…I know she is a humble representative of our district and just won re-election…
  
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FrankUnderwood says:

November 22, 2014 at 8:43 am

He may be an embarrassment, but he's our embarrassment.

And at least he's not comparing the calves of Latino children to melons. And Hick's view on immigration are still somewhat better than Both Ways' which consists of rants about agricultural trespass and Mexico Time.

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