Republicans in Colorado’s 65-member House of Representatives — who hold just 19 seats — took to the floor in recent days to make a statement.
Their intent was to challenge a request from leadership that they refrain from using language that could be considered offensive when debating policy around migrants. But the real outcome was simply to further highlight their efforts to otherize and dehumanize people who have come to this country simply looking to better their lives and those of their families.
We will not repeat the tired, offensive tropes here, but will instead highlight these antics as performative politics at its worst. And it should remind us of other terms: intolerance; small-mindedness; fearmongering, and xenophobia, to name a few.
Minority Leader Rep. Rose Puglise, R-Colorado Springs, told her colleagues “that the voters of Colorado want us to have this uncomfortable conversation.”
If you look at the calendar, you’ll note it’s an election year — so it should come as no surprise that politicians are once again trying to gin up fear and divide voters over the issue of immigration.
This is similar to efforts we’ve seen across Western Colorado -- almost exclusively in conservative counties and municipalities — to pass ‘non-sanctuary’ and other anti-immigrant resolutions.
While offering no tangible solutions or improvements to anyone’s lives, they direct blame toward the immigrant and Latino communities, even in the absence of guilt.
We applaud those who, rather than using their platforms to divide our communities, work instead to help eliminate barriers and to lift up all residents in furthering the interests — and success — of this “nation of immigrants.”