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July 27, 2015 12:44 PM UTC

New Coffman® Trumped By Knee-Jerk Immigration Vote

  • 9 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols
Mike Coffman gets Trumped.
Rep. Mike Coffman (R).

As the Washington Post reports, don’t ever let it be said again that Republicans can’t get an immigration bill passed:

The House voted Thursday to punish local jurisdictions — known as “sanctuary cities” — that defy federal immigration authorities in order to protect immigrants living illegally in the United States.

The 241-to-179 vote, which was backed by Republican leaders and fell largely along party lines, is the most dramatic action taken by Congress after a spate of new attention on illegal immigration sparked by the July 1 killing of a 32-year-old California woman…

Some law enforcement organizations, civil rights groups and the U.S. Conference of Mayors have pushed back on efforts to crack down on sanctuary cities, arguing that new policies would be counterproductive by undermining the trust between local law enforcement agencies and the communities they serve.

In the wake of the tragic killing of Kathryn Steinle by an undocumented immigrant who had been deported from the United States several times, the GOP-controlled House of Representatives rushed a bill to the floor bypassing the normal committee process to punish so-called “sanctuary cities”–jurisdictions that don’t investigate immigration status when working with residents or taking reports of crimes. Supporters of local governments who have made that policy decision say immigrants are more willing to cooperate with law enforcement in investigations of serious crimes if they don’t fear automatic arrest over their immigration status.

City governments, local law enforcement, not to mention millions of undocumented immigrants in the United States are waiting for comprehensive immigration reform at the federal level to resolve the conflicts between federal and local policy, rationalize the broken status quo, and restore functionality to a system that hasn’t served the needs of the nation or immigrants wanting to come to American in many decades. Until then, knee-jerk retaliation against the headlines of the day are all we get on this issue from the Republican-controlled Congress.

coffmanaye

That includes Rep. Mike Coffman, whose “reinvention” on the issue of immigration since being redistricted out of his formerly safe GOP seat into a diverse battleground has once again been “Trumped” by his actual vote. Despite Coffman’s repeated attempts to cast himself as a “moderate” on immigration since redistricting, this vote has yet again failed to square with his newfound rhetoric. A good example of this delicate posturing came right after President Barack Obama’s executive order to halt deportations of DREAMer students–when Coffman voted to defund the program, claiming it gave prosecutors “too much discretion.”

Defending Thursday’s vote, Coffman said “it cannot be seen as anti-immigrant, as anti-Hispanic.” But with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump demagoguing the tragic yet anecdotal incident universally cited as the reason for rushing this bill through the GOP-controlled House, making this a focus of a campaign that has already outraged Hispanics over Trump’s unapologetic racist overtures…how can it possibly be seen as anything else?

Give the way Trump is dominating Spanish language news coverage of the 2016 presidential race, it’s an easy guess who Hispanic voters will identify this action with. Donald Trump is driving the agenda in today’s Republican Party–and in Colorado’s most competitive congressional race, Mike Coffman is happy to help him.

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9 thoughts on “New Coffman® Trumped By Knee-Jerk Immigration Vote”

  2. As usual, Colorado Pols is on the wrong side of this issue.

    http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/current_events/immigration/july_2015/voters_want_to_punish_sanctuary_cities

    Following the murder of a young woman in San Francisco by an illegal immigrant from Mexico, voters want to get tough on so-called “sanctuary cities” that refuse to enforce immigration laws.

    Sixty-two percent (62%) of Likely U.S. Voters think the U.S. Justice Department should take legal action against cities that provide sanctuary for illegal immigrants. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 26% oppose Justice Department action against sanctuary cities. Twelve percent (12%) are undecided.

    1. Pretty sure that if you compared the percentage of  women murdered (happens every damn day, usually by a husband or boy friend) by illegal immigrants to the percentage murdered by fellow Americans and the percentage of illegal immigrants who commit murder compared to the percentage of American citizens who commit murder, you'd find that American citizens have more reason to fear each other than they do to get hysterical about immigrants. It's very unfortunate but so are all the far more common American on American murders. 

      1. I'm just pointing out what the American people think. Go ahead and tell them what they think is wrong, that's fine with me. Let's let them vote on it.

        1. I'm good with saying that popular opinion is sometimes wrong.

          * Slavery was pretty popular in the South (with white people, anyway). It was wrong.
          * What this country did to the Natives was very popular back in Jackson's day. It was wrong.
          * Locking up Japanese-Americans during WWII was popular – and wrong.

          Punishing jurisdictions for not actively helping INS/DHS is wrong, too. That's not to say that, in this case, the San Francisco Sheriff's department was right, but in many cases "sanctuary" cities are able to catch real criminals because undocumented immigrants are less afraid of local law enforcement.

        2. The American people by a strong majority want to see comprehensive immigration reform.

          The American people by a strong majority believe we need to deal with the very real consequences of a changing climate.

          The American people by a strong majority believe the Iranian nuclear deal is OK.

          Go ahead and tell them that what they think is wrong, that's fine with me.  Let's let them vote on it.  Oh wait, Republicans control the legislative branch and would rather engage in shallow political showboating than allow for real immigration reform to be brought to a vote. Your arguments are still as stupid as ever.

    1. No way. Duchovny's much hotter, and has a better hair stylist. I do see the resemblance, though.

      "Trump your Congresscritter" should definitely be a new meme.

      Pols didn't mention it, but Ken Buck sponsored HR3009 "Enforce the Law for Sanctuary Cities."

      Buck did not support making it easier for immigrants to report crimes when he was Weld County DA. He talked a good game, but in fact put up hurdles to immigrants reporting crimes.

      The GOP keeps trying to pass these little bits and pieces of immigration law, but are total chickenshits when it comes  to passing a comprehensive immigration reform bill. They won't even let it come up for a vote. Per the White House press secretary, Josh Earnest:

      “These are the kinds of enforcement provisions that were included in the law that Republicans blocked,” Earnest said. “So when they raise concerns about how effectively our immigration system is working to keep the community safe, they have no one to blame but themselves.”

       

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