Maes reiterates support for Arizona-style immigration law

Dan Maes this week reiterated his stand on immigration, saying that if a bill similar to SB 1070, the one recently passed in Arizona, came before him as governor, he would sign it.

“We have a lot of laws that no one is enforcing. If we just enforced the laws we already have, we would be in a lot better shape,” he said. “[Current Governor Bill] Ritter and [Democratic gubernatorial nominee John] Hickenlooper aren’t going to do it. I will. If we want an Arizona law, I would sign it in a minute.”

Maes said the Arizona law is about more than immigration. “It’s not just about immigration. It is about states’ rights. [Arizona Governor Jan Brewer] exercised her rights to solve a problem. Good for her. We need to do more of that.”

He said the federal government should do a better job of managing immigration and managing the country’s borders.

“I’ll take care of Colorado’s borders,” he said.

Traveling around Colorado campaigning for Governor, the Evergreen resident said he has met with lots of farmers who rely on Mexican labor to bring the crops in.

“We need people to pick peaches and cantaloupe, so we have to have an efficient system to bring in those laborers, and then we just need to make sure they go home when they are done.”

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Scot Kersgaard has been managing editor of a political newspaper, editor and co-owner of a ski town newspaper, executive editor of eight high-tech magazines (where he worked with current Apple CEO Tim Cook), deputy press secretary to a U.S. Senator, and an outdoors columnist at the Rocky Mountain News. He has an English degree from the University of Washington. He was awarded a fellowship to study internet journalism at the University of Maryland's Knight Center for Specialized Journalism. He was student body president in college. He spends his free time hiking and skiing.

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