CAIR - Colorado Alliance for Immigration Reform

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City rejects immigration measure - Proposal aimed to bar city employees from questioning status

The city of Fort Collins won't set limits on when its employees or police can ask residents whether they're in the country legally.

City Council rejected a measure Tuesday that would have barred city employees from asking individuals' immigration status except in specified cases. The so-called Human Rights Protection Ordinance failed on a 5-2 vote, with councilmen David Roy and Ben Manvel as the sole support.

"I think there are other means available," Councilwoman Karen Weitkunat said. "It does not need a law."

The ordinance was introduced in 2003 and has since gone through at least nine drafts, becoming one of the city's most emotional issues along the way. Tuesday was no different.

...Testimony and discussion stretched across three hours, with those testifying against the proposal outnumbering supporters 24-16.

Advocates argued the proposal would offer a measure of security to all residents - especially minorities [illegal aliens]...

But opponents were just as vocal in calling the ordinance a sanctuary policy that would ask city employees to turn a blind eye to illegal aliens living in their midst....

The proposed ordinance would have placed strict limits on when and how residents [illegal aliens] could be asked their immigration status.

Exemptions would have been offered in a handful of cases such as determining eligibility for government programs. Police could have asked about immigration status when it was essential to an investigation or prosecution of a crime, but not in cases of petty offenses or traffic infractions.

Critics said the measure would have tied the hands of law enforcement, and Chief Dennis Harrison has warned it could have made his officers unwitting criminals while doing their jobs....

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