February 18, 2007
Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition ["CIRC"; statewide coordinator: Julien Ross] is a five-year old group with 80 other organizations as members.
From
this we learn:
The coalition is directed by representatives of 12 groups, including the Colorado Catholic Conference, Service Employees International Union Local 105, and the American Friends Service Committee.
The AFSC has an indirect link to the Mexican government. And, CIRC's site is hosted at AFSC's site. afsc.org/central/ImmigrantRights/CIRC.htm has a list of their demands:
* driver's licenses for all immigrants, regardless of status
* in-state tuition for qualifying immigrants who graduate from state high schools
* statewide acceptance of the matricula consular identification cards issued by the Mexican Consulate as official ID
* defeat of English-Only bills similar to Amendment 31
* defeat of attempts to cut all Medicaid benefits to legal immigrants
The Mexican government - or the crooks who hire illegal aliens - couldn't come up with a better list of demands. Under their scheme, we might as well not have a border at all.
On the 13th, CIRC visited Longmont and was hosted by a member organization, El Comite (director: Marta Moreno; development director: Carolyn Slauson). Details
in "Immigration group to plan lobby efforts" by Ben Ready:
...During the meeting, CIRC members also will discuss rapid-response plans to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids...
Immigrant advocates in Longmont and other communities will create contingency plans in case ICE executes more raids, Slauson said. Getting immigration lawyers access to arrestees in detention facilities, raising funds for their families and organizing peace processions would be easier if planned ahead of time, [El Comite development director Carolyn Slauson] noted.
Despite being held at a public facility, one of those on the other side (Stan Weekes of the Colorado Alliance for Immigration Reform) - as well as a photog from that paper - was kept
out of the meeting, supposedly due to space concerns. And:
"We don't want to be a coalition that just reacts, but that fights," Ross said in Spanish of CIRC's two-tiered plan to lobby legislators while also planning boycotts, marches and protests for the humane treatment of all immigrants. "We won't just sit with our legs crossed waiting for them to attack us."
"Them... attack
us?" Determining whether Ross has "issues" is left to the reader's imagination.
3/24/07 UPDATE: The Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition is supporting a week long boycott designed to show the power of "immigrants". It will
end April 1. Participants are to take all but a minimum from their bank accounts, avoid sending money out of the country, avoid spending money, and... "[t]urn off televisions and use minimal electric energy":
CIRC’s Denver office has made dozens of media presentations and circulated 50,000 boycott fliers. Centro Amistad has circulated another 2,000. El Comité director Marta Moreno declined to comment when asked if her organization will participate in the boycott, but El Comité’s office had the flier posted on its front door Friday.
Posted to Immigration2007a at February 18, 2007 07:17 AM
Comments
If there were any rational arguments to support their anti-American demands, why would they use the threat of violence?
Posted by: John S Bolton at February 20, 2007 01:20 AM
Publish Date: 3/1/2007
ACLU to investigate Longmont library’s open-meeting policy
By Ben Ready
The Daily Times-Call
LONGMONT — The American Civil Liberties Union will investigate whether the Longmont Public Library can allow groups to hold private meetings there.
Directors of the Boulder County chapter of the ACLU voted unanimously Tuesday to investigate after hearing a presentation from Stan Weekes, one of three county residents who was denied access to a group’s meeting at the library in February.
Boulder ACLU vice chairman Dave Sonnabend said an ACLU board member and lawyer will call Longmont city attorneys to find out what library regulations and city ordinances govern open-meeting policies at the library.
“If they may not allow their facility to be used other than what is stated in some policy, we want to see the policy. If there is an ordinance involved here, we want to see that,” Sonnabend said.
On Feb. 13, the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition — a group of 80 organizations — held a meeting at the library hosted by El Comité of Longmont. CIRC leaders opened the meeting to the public but asked that non-members R.S.V.P. because the library room CIRC reserved was limited to 56 people.
Weekes is the director of the Colorado Alliance for Immigration Reform, a group with opposing goals to CIRC’s. Weekes had not reserved a seat, but library staff told CIRC’s organizers they would have to let him in if the room hadn’t filled to fire code capacity by the time the meeting started.
The meeting began 45 minutes behind schedule, shortly after the room had finally filled. Weekes, a Times-Call photographer and two others were never allowed in.
Library director Tony Brewer told the Times-Call a week later that library rooms are “free and open to the public” according to policy. But Brewer asked assistant city attorney Jeff Friedland to research whether state court cases point to legal precedents on whether “members-only” or “R.S.V.P.-only” gatherings should be allowed in public libraries. Another question is whether private meetings — if they’re allowed at all — must open doors to non-members if rooms don’t fill to capacity by starting time.
Brewer said only two groups hold regular meetings at the library that are not completely open to the public: Mothers Against Drunk Driving — which educates drunk-driving offenders — and city staff conducting neighborhood conflict-mediation meetings.
On Tuesday, Brewer sent an e-mail to hundreds of fellow library directors statewide asking their advice. Friedland said Tuesday he was still researching case law and did not have a timeline for getting back to Brewer.
The ACLU will likely follow up its investigation with a formal letter to the city but probably won’t seek a lawsuit through its state chapter, Sonnabend said.
The ACLU has no interest in anything related to immigration from that night, Sonnabend said. The group is considering library policies from a First Amendment and freedom of assembly standpoint only, he said.
“Perhaps our writing this letter will show our concern and bring these constitutional concerns to (the city’s) attention. That oftentimes is enough,” Sonnabend said. “Either the library obeyed their own policies or they didn’t, and we don’t know at this moment.”
City officials will wait to comment until they hear directly from the ACLU, city spokesman Rigo Leal said.
Ben Ready can be reached at 303-684-5326, or by e-mail at bready@times-call.com.
Posted by: Stan Weekes at March 2, 2007 05:10 PM
