Dear Friends,

Yeh Ling-Ling, a specialist in illegal immigration, was the guest speaker
Saturday night (2-25) at a town hall meeting that I hosted at the Loveland
Public Library. She stressed the urgent need for action on this nationwide
crisis. Last year, over 3 million illegal immigrants entered our country;
overall that population is now 18 to 20 million. More than 28% of our
federal prison inmates entered our country illegally and committed crimes
here; how many terrorists also entered through our southern border?

Yeh Ling-Ling talked of the unjust reality of allowing illegal aliens to
seriously drain our economy while more than 30 million Americans live in
poverty. We do not have unlimited resources. We need to give the best of our
care and resources to our own citizens-particularly our children.

Even though our state is not a border state, the economic and social impact
of illegal immigration is an increasing threat to the quality and safety of
our life here in Colorado. For example, Denver has become a hub of drug
traffic. A flood of illegal and dangerous substances are being smuggled
over the border from Mexico.

These facts about illegal immigration are known to my colleagues at the
legislature, Democrats and Republicans alike. For example, members of the
Republican Study Committee have extensively researched this topic and hosted
a legislative hearing. We drafted eight bills containing common-sense
measures to address this very serious problem.

I was sincerely hoping that the Democrats would join hands with us and pass
these bills. This should be a non-partisan issue!

Instead, last Tuesday, 2/21, the Democrats in the House State Affairs
Committee killed 6 out of the 8 bills. The two that survived had no real
significance. One prohibited bail bondsmen to offer bail bonds to illegal
aliens. How many bonds do you think bail bondsmen would write for an
illegal alien that has no collateral and no money? Another bill would do an
audit of false identifications. How would this help the situation?

We need to find out how many illegal immigrants are using state services. My
bill, HB 1062, would have allowed us to find out if a student is a citizen
at the time of their enrollment in school. This would have been for
informational purposes only; students would not have been denied services.
I agree with the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in 1982, that our schools
should give an education to every student that lives in our country, whether
they are here legally or not. But it is absurd that we cannot even ask if a
person is a U.S. citizen. We need to be able to assess the extent of the
financial burden to our schools from illegal immigration.

With the liberals in charge, we are experiencing serious setbacks. In their
irresponsible refusal to deal with the destructive reality of the
out-of-control influx of illegal immigrants, they are compromising the
safety and well-being of the people that they claim to serve. My Republican
colleagues and I will continue to push this issue, and it is essential that
we elect enough like-minded legislators to re-gain the majority and to do
what is needed to protect this state.

For more information on this important issue, please open the attached file
titled "Illegal Immigration Bills Killed."

Rep. Lundberg's Proposal:

Rep. Kevin Lundberg proposed a bill that would have imposed a severance tax
on oil shale to fund state transportation projects and provide property tax
relief. This excellent bill was patterned after the actions of our neighbor
to the north, the State of Wyoming. Wyoming receives billions of dollars in
severance taxes, and has approximately $1.5 billion in excess taxes.

Rep. Lundberg's bill would have helped our state fund transportation and
capitol construction, and would have given substantial relief to the onerous
business personal property tax. In spite of all these benefits, Rep.
Lundberg's bill was killed by party-line vote 7-5 in the House Finance
Committee. Rep. Lundberg will run this bill again next year if he is
re-elected, and I will once again be a very strong co-sponsor.

Some Good News:

HB 1316, which would require employers in Colorado with over 3,500 employees
to pay 11.5% of their salary dollars for their employees' health care costs,
was killed by the Democrats in the Business Affairs & Labor Committee.
Perhaps when the committee found out that the state government only spends
5.2% of its own salary dollars on state employees, some committee members
gave this bill some good thought and sent it to the graveyard.

In November, an initiative will likely make it to the ballot that would
require school districts to spend at least 65% of their operating
expenditures on classroom instruction.

More Information:

Please click on the attachment "Bills in The News" for more information.

I will continue to study the issues and represent the citizens of Loveland
to the best of my ability. Please contact me on issues that are important
to you!

God's blessings to America,

Rep. Jim Welker
HD 51 - Loveland, CO 80538