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While state Senator-elect Kent Lambert leads a group of conservative statehouse officials in a call for Arizona-style laws against illegal immigration in Colorado, other Republicans are speaking out against such measures. Take Jeb Bush, a former Florida governor and the younger brother of former President George W. Bush. Alongside Harvard professor Robert Putnam, Jeb Bush decried the Arizona law as a form of racial profiling at the Denver Convention Center on Saturday, calling it “the wrong approach” (via The Denver Post). He added that if the United States deported 12 million undocumented immigrants, it would cost the nation billions of dollars. Instead, he recommends tightening the border, as well as supporting programs to integrate immigrants into U.S. society.
Last week, Bush was selected by former Minnesota U.S. Senator Norm Coleman to help lead a new Republican push to attract Latino voters, reports The Miami Herald, which notes that the Hispanic Leadership Network will launch next month.
Meanwhile, Face The State’s Peter Blake recently pointed out why Colorado Attorney General John Suthers, also a Republican, likely would refuse to defend immigration laws as stringent as those passed in Arizona.