Denver groups seek to bury illegal immigrant impound initiative

Colorado Independent: A phone bank jammed with more than 30 volunteers was ringing phones off the hook earlier this week, asking residents to vote no on “impound” Initiative 300.  “This would force police to do something that will cost us roughly $6 million to implement — and they already have the ability to use their discretion and impound cars in a circumstance when someone does not have a valid driver’s license,” said Carolyn Siegel from Coloradans for Safe Communities, a coalition of labor, advocacy and religious groups.

Initiative 300 was brought by Daniel Hayes, it will also appear on the ballot in Aurora. The laws it would create require police officers to seize the vehicles of anyone driving without a valid license. But, as investigations have made clear, the initiatives aren’t primarily concerned with traffic safety; they are meant to bolster anti-immigration policy, using traffic laws to find undocumented immigrants and to bring legal action against them.  Law enforcement and city authorities have opposed the initiatives as misguided. Officers on the ground require discretion, they say, but the new laws would unnecessarily tie up officers on the road, turning them into proxy immigration agents, and drain municipal resources.

The phone bank is being run out of the Denver Area Labor Federations offices as part of an eight-day effort. Volunteers included members of labor unions, the American Civil Liberties Union, citizen activist groups, senior citizens, and faith-based groups.

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