Witnesses set for immigration hearing

M.E. Sprengelmeyer, Rocky Mountain News

Published August 22, 2006 at midnight

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Gov. Bill Owens will headline the list of scheduled witnesses for a U.S. Senate field hearing on immigration reform this month in Aurora, Sen. Wayne Allard’s office announced Tuesday.

The Senate Budget Committee is meeting Aug. 30 at the Aurora Municipal Center to talk about the effects of current and proposed immigration policies on state, federal and local government finances.

Owens is expected to testify in the opening panel, along with Paul Cullinan of the Congressional Budget Office and Robert Rector, senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation think tank.

The second panel includes: Aurora Mayor Ed Tauer; El Paso County Sheriff’s Commander Paula Presley; Mesa County Chief Deputy District Attorney Dan Rubenstein; Tony Gagliardi, Colorado State Director of the National Federation of Independent Business; and Helen Krieble, president of the Vernon K. Krieble Foundation.

Krieble, a Colorado horse park owner, is the leading backer of an alternative reform package being billed as a way to break the gridlock between competing versions of immigration reform legislation in Congress.

For now, the Senate and House of Representatives are far apart on immigration reform. Late last year, the House passed legislation that would expand a fence along the U.S.-Mexico border, make unlawful presence in the United States a felony, and crack down on those who hire illegal immigrants.

The Senate passed a version that includes enforcement provisions but also a guest-worker plan backed by President Bush and measures that would allow millions of people now in the country illegally to get on an eventual path to citizenship.

With no compromise in sight, congressional Republicans have scheduled a series of hearings around the country during the August recess.

Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Denver, has questioned the motivations.

"These hearings could be an opportunity to hear more information from the American people on immigration reform," Salazar said in a recent statement.. "But they are also a continuation of Republican stunts to derail any comprehensive immigration reform that secures our borders and national security."

Allard chief of staff Sean Conway fired back on Tuesday, saying the hearing in Aurora was particularly timely because a new report by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) found that the cost of the Senate-passed legislation would be up to $126 billion more than expected over the next 10 years.

"The CBO is a non-partisan entity and they’re coming out and they’re warning that the legislation the Senate passed is going to cost $126 billion more than anticipated," Conway said. "So this hearing is becoming even more important in a sense this is focusing on the fiscal side of the issue."

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