Gov. Jared Polis sends a message to President-elect Trump in his Colorado State of the State
Gov. Jared Polis sprinkles stories of Coloradans into every State of the State address, inviting them to the chamber so people can put a face to the name. But this year, he told the story of a Coloradan who remained nameless and faceless.
He called her "Sophia" but admitted it wasn't her real name and, he said, she was too afraid to show her face. He referenced an empty seat for her.
The governor said "Sophia" was brought to the U.S. as a child and has been protected from deportation by Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, a program President-elect Donald Trump tried to end during his first term.
"It upsets me greatly and it saddens me, and certainly as a state we want to make sure that we can be as welcoming as we can to people who are trained and working good jobs and following our laws like Sophia," Polis told Political Reporter Shaun Boyd.
Boyd used his annual address to send Trump a message, "We welcome more federal help to detain and deport dangerous criminals."
But he says Colorado will not support efforts to deport those like Sophia, who he says has lived here for more than 20 years and works as a nurse.
"That's exactly the kind of person we need in Colorado," the governor said.
As for migrants who have only come here recently, Polis says many of them are from Venezuela.
"We don't have an extradition treaty with Venezuela. We would welcome one. There's been times in the past we've had one. But obviously if there are Venezuelans here who are committing crimes here, we want them promptly deported," Polis said.
Those not committing crimes, he says, deserve a chance to stay.
Republican state Sen. Barb Kirkmeyer, a member of the Joint Budget Committee, says at what cost? She says the state spent $24 million last year to educate migrant children and has a billion-dollar budget deficit this year.
"We can't just keep expanding services. We do not have the funds for it. And that is ... an issue that this governor needs to grapple with and quit trying to muddy the waters by talking about DACA students and other things and saying Trump's going to deport everybody. He's been very clear that if there are law abiding citizens, law abiding people here, he's not going after those. But if these folks have committed crimes here, they need to get out of our country," Kirkmeyer said.
Trump said recently that he has now decided DACA recipients should not be deported.
While Polis says he would not support attempts to deport law abiding Coloradans, he didn't say if he would resist them in any way.
The governor also used his speech to call for bills to increase affordable housing, reforms to address the high cost of homeowners' insurance, more mass transit, and the repeal of unnecessary laws and regulations.
He urged lawmakers to pass condo liability reform too. He said 20 years ago there were nearly 3,000 condos on the market in Colorado under $400,000. Now, he says, there are only 22.
Watch the complete speech in the video below: