I get your point, but it might be a bit of a stretch to say that Denver's mayor is personally encouraging or inducing a person to enter or reside in these United States by not requiring an individual to disclose their citizenship/residency status in their dealings with the City and County of Denver. The argument can be made that the mayor is responding to the situation created by their presence, not inducing or encouraging their presence.
What Congress needs to do is legislate the ability for ICE to take custody of an individual in a city, county, or State jail/penitentiary to serve the remainder of any sentence imposed by the city/county/State court concurrently with their federal detention for immigration adjudication rather than having to wait until those criminals are released by the other authorities. That way ICE could take custody of the illegal immigrant, in a controlled environment, a month or two before they are scheduled for release by the local authorities back into the general population.
The feds are scheduled to close down the medium security facility just off 285 and Kipling . . . that seems to be a perfect location for a federal immigration detention facility, or build one at the Federal Center off 6th and Simms/Kipling, that one even has a hospital nearby to provide necessary medical care for the incarcerated individuals until their case is adjudicated. You could even put a federal immigration court in either location to hear the cases of the individuals in an expedited manner to ensure their due process rights are upheld.
The goal is to get a criminal alien out of the community and out of the country in a process that respects the due process rights every person in these United States is promised, right? I, personally, laughed when I heard they were going to be taking criminals, from countries who were recalcitrant in repatriating their citizens after wearing out their welcome here, to Gitmo until arrangements could be made with their native country for their return. That's problem-solving level thinking, and we need more of it at all levels of government in this union of ours.
Whether an alien entered illegally, a misdemeanor criminal offense, or is unlawfully residing within the union, a civil offense, both are subject to detention and removal under the immigration laws on the books. So, lets do that. Detain and remove those found to be here in violation of the criminal and civil statutes.
And yes, I get it; if I lived in a s-hole country like Somalia, or Venezuela, I'd want to escape that hell hole too, and I'd be willing to risk a lot to make that happen, especially if I had a family. But just like we don't allow someone living on the street to enter a home and take up residency there, we don't allow people who don't want to live in undesirable countries to come here and live. You need permission to live here if you were born somewhere outside of this union of States. There isn't a single country, anywhere, that allows people from outside of their political boundaries to just decide to start living in that country. Heck, if you were a Ute and you wanted to be a Sioux you had to ask too . . . you couldn't just start hanging out with another tribe, you had to ask to be accepted into it.
Despite the common phrase, it really isn't ever a good idea to seek forgiveness instead of permission. Forgiveness is always a lot tougher of a row to hoe . . .
