Anti-immigration bill defeated in Colorado
Denver, CO – On February 25, a collaboration between the Colorado Immigrants Rights Coalition (CIRC) and Aurora Unidos Community Service Organization (AUCSO),helped mobilize over 300 people from across Colorado for a general assembly hearing on an anti-immigration bill, SB25-047, in the Denver state capitol building.
Before the hearing, there was a rally outside facilitated by Aurora Unidos CSO and Freedom Road Socialist Organization that included the chants of “Legalization for all,” “No raids, no fear, immigrants are welcomed here” and “When Trumps says go back, we say fight back!”
Yoselin Corrales of AUCSO said the bill would do “irreparable harm to our immigrant families, friends and neighbors. Senate Bill 47 would make it easier for local police to collaborate with federal immigration enforcement. Having police act as ICE agents erodes trust amongst immigrant neighbors and makes our communities much more unsafe.”
Corrales continued, “A lot of people believe this bill is dead on arrival, but I think we have learned that we can’t always trust our elected officials to act on behalf of the best interests of their constituents. It's important to show up today, make our voices heard, and then continue to show up to remind them that we are watching them, and that we will hold them accountable!”
Nels Pine, a member of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization, told the crowd, “At the core of this growing immigrant rights movement are Chicanos, Mexicanos and Central Americans. These communities are concentrated in and around the oppressed Chicano Nation in the Southwest and are overwhelmingly working class and most willing to fight. At the same time, we need to unite with everyone targeted by the Trump administration, from Haitians to Venezuelans. No to deportations! Que viva La Raza! Chicano power!”
In the hearing, there were testimonies from people who supported the bill and people who were against the bill. Nearly all the testimonies in support came from sheriffs, commissioners and police officers. However, these supporters of the bill were far outnumbered by the hundreds who showed up in opposition.
One mother spoke of the anxiety and terror she felt when she and her husband were “pulled over by the police and questioned whether we were legal citizens, but because we had our documents at home the police detained us for five days!” During this time, she was only able to contact her children via a telephone where they were being detained. This was just one story of dozens like it that were told.
The hearing lasted nearly seven hours, with the overwhelming majority of the testimonies opposing the bill, resulting in a 3 – 2 vote against it. As the crowd exits the capital, some people chanted, “¡El pueblo unido jamás será vencido!”