For three consecutive days, Peter Boyles, host of 630 KHOW's The Peter Boyles Show, again falsely claimed that Denver is a “sanctuary city” or that sanctuary policies will prevent enforcement of Colorado's new immigration laws, enacted by the state legislature via special session this summer. Yet, contrary to the assertion of Boyles and others, a Colorado statute enacted May 1 prohibits so-called “sanctuary” policies and makes it an offense for local governments to maintain “ordinances or policies that prohibit local officials, including peace officers, from communicating or cooperating with federal officials with regard to the immigration status of any person within the state.”

A 2004 report by the U.S. Congressional Research Service -- Congress' non-partisan research and analysis arm -- identified “sanctuary cities” as those that have adopted “a 'don't ask-don't tell' policy where they don't require their employees, including law enforcement officers, to report to federal officials aliens who may be illegally present in the country.”

On September 6, Boyles's guest was Matthew Bracken, author of the novel Domestic Enemies: The Reconquista, which envisions the granting of “amnesty” to millions of illegal immigrants eventually leading to the “reconquista” of the Southwest United States. During their discussion of the so-called “Aztlan movement,” Bracken claimed such places as Maywood, Calif., are emerging as “sanctuary” cities for illegal immigrants, to which Boyles responded, “Denver is sanctuary.”

Later in the same show, speaking with Los Angeles radio talk-show host Terry Anderson, Boyles repeated his false claim that, “Denver, Colorado, is sanctuary. Although we have this mayor [saying] 'Oh, it's not sanctuary.' You show him the executive order; he still doesn't know anything at all about sanctuary.” While Boyles apparently was referring to current mayor John Hickenlooper, former Mayor Wellington Webb issued the executive orders that several conservatives, including Representative Tom Tancredo (R-Littleton), have argued established Denver as a sanctuary city. Attempting to make his case in 2005, Tancredo debated with Denver City Attorney Cole Finegan on The Peter Boyles Show:

As The Denver Post reported on May 13, 2005:

During the radio show, Tancredo and Finegan sparred over two executive orders signed by former Mayor Wellington Webb that Tancredo points to as evidence Denver has a sanctuary policy. One, signed in 1998, prohibits discrimination against foreign nationals in delivering city services. The other, signed in 2002, established Denver's policy for accepting some forms of foreign ID cards.

Those orders do not discourage cooperation with immigration authorities and, therefore, do not represent a sanctuary policy, Finegan said.

Though Boyles and Tancredo argued at the time that “comments Webb made while signing the executive order in 1998 amounted to a de facto sanctuary policy,” the Post made clear that regardless of the legal effects of Webb's oral proclamations accompanying his signing of the orders, his “prepared remarks from the event refer[ed] only to legal immigrants.”

On his September 7 show, Boyles's guest was Americans for Legal Immigration (ALIPAC) president William Gheen. ALIPAC is an organization dedicated to pressuring lawmakers to pass legislation aimed at curbing illegal immigration in the United States. Gheen's writings have appeared on the website VDARE.com, which, as Colorado Media Matters has noted, publishes material by writers that VDARE editor Peter Brimelow “regard[s] as ”white nationalist." Brimelow made this acknowledgement in a response to a July 15 Rocky Mountain News article that described VDARE.com as a “white nationalist Web site.” Defending VDARE.com, Brimelow said the News went “seriously wrong ... in its mischaracterization” of the site named for the first English child born in the New World, Virginia Dare.

Speaking to Gheen about the prospects of the electorate seating politicians this November who will take a harder stance on illegal immigration than the Bush administration or current members of Congress, Boyles reflected on the futility of stringent lawmaking when municipalities' “sanctuary policies” are bound to stymie any such legislative efforts. Boyles then once again inaccurately labeled Denver as a sanctuary city, saying: “Denver was declared a sanctuary city by the former mayor. This [current] mayor, John Hickenlooper, doesn't even think that we are a sanctuary city ...”

On September 8, Boyles continued to advance the sanctuary-city falsehood on his show while speaking with El Paso County Commissioner and Taxpayers Bill of Rights Amendment author Douglas Bruce. Addressing the potential for Denver to enforce the provisions of recently passed state legislation seeking to quell the impact of illegal immigration of the state, Boyles stated: “my people are telling me -- that they have chosen to totally ignore it because they are home rule and that sanctuary policies continue.”

Boyles's statements regarding Denver's supposed sanctuary policies continues a pattern of misinformation that Colorado Media Matters has previously noted here, here, here, here, and here. In addition to Boyles, some Colorado Republicans -- including gubernatorial candidate Bob Beauprez, former 5th District congressional candidate Jeff Crank, and former Boulder mayor and congressional candidate Bob Greenlee -- also have sought to perpetuate the myth. In addition, certain media outlets also have repeated it uncritically, including The Denver Post and The Associated Press. The claim even has been posted on billboards in Denver.

Beyond the simple letter of the law, a June 11 Rocky Mountain News article countered the incorrect assertion that “Denver is sanctuary.” The News quoted Carl Rusnok, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) spokesman for Colorado, who noted: “There aren't any cities in Colorado that refuse to call us. ... I know of no Colorado city that has a policy against calling ICE.” The News article also reported that the newspaper's independent investigation “found that some local law-enforcement officials indeed fail to turn in immigrants, including some criminals they know are here illegally. But it has nothing to do with any sanctuary policy.” The News added that local law enforcement officials in Colorado “say they know ICE lacks the people or places to deal with them, a message ICE officials have delivered personally. And local jails are too full to hold them while deportation orders are processed.”

Moreover, the CRS report provided a detailed list of those U.S. cities and counties that “have utilized various mechanisms to ensure that unauthorized aliens who may be present in their jurisdiction illegally are not turned in to federal authorities.” Not a single Colorado city or town was listed in the report, issued in 2004.

From the September 6 broadcast of KHOW-AM's The Peter Boyles Show:

BRACKEN: The mayor of Los Angeles, Mayor Tony Villar, who changed his name to Villaraigosa, taking his wife's name with a hyphen to make himself more Latinate, he was a founding member of MEChA, which is the student movement for Aztlan. I mean, their declared goal is to split the Southwest apart from the United States. That's called the plan of Aztlan. You can just Google it. It's just unbelievable. I mean, it's like the Mein Kampf of the Aztlan movement. And they've never backed down from it.

BOYLES: What does the plan look like, and what does it say?

BRACKEN: That the brown race, the race of Indo-Hispanos, should rule the Southwest; that it's legitimately theirs and that the Anglos are, you know, bloody invaders who need to be kicked out. And this is a guy who's now the mayor of Los Angeles. He put on a tie and cut his long hair, but he's the same Tony Villar who was leading the sit-ins at UCLA in the '70s. Now he's the mayor. But there are judges, there are councilmen, you know, there are school board members that are Mechistas. They've never backed away, but now, like termites, they're burrowing in. That's where you get these situations like in Maywood, which people don't realize, that's actually a section of Los Angeles virtually, that are now sanctuary cities.

BOYLES: Absolutely. Denver is sanctuary.

ANDERSON: And Maywood has declared itself a sanctuary. They said if 4437, the House bill, is activated and becomes law, guess what? We won't enforce it.

BOYLES: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

ANDERSON: Come here, we'll take care of you. You can come here and, you know, do a Hunchback of Notre Dame. Sanctuary, you know.

BOYLES: Yeah. Yeah.

ANDERSON: And nothing will happen to you.

BOYLES: Our-- Denver, Colorado, is sanctuary. Although we have this mayor, “Oh, it's not sanctuary.” You show him the executive order, he still doesn't know anything at all about sanctuary. The lead Democrat, elected Democrat, in the House doesn't know anything about sanctuary. And the city council in Boulder has said, now that there's been this attempt here in the special session, they're going to ignore it. So, I guess it's pick and choose what laws you think you're going to have to deal with.

From the September 7 broadcast of KHOW-AM's The Peter Boyles Show:

GHEEN: There's a throw-'em-out attitude, and illegal immigration is driving that throw-'em-out attitude. The first thing my organization wants to do it make sure that the public doesn't throw out the right people. We've got about 80-90 members of Congress that have stood up to these corporations and stood up to the illegal aliens to stand with the public, and we've got to make sure everyone knows who they are like Congressman Tancredo, J.D. Hayworth ...

BOYLES: All right, great, but we look around here -- we have sanctuary city -- I'm going to pause and come back with you and take calls -- Denver was declared a sanctuary city by the former mayor. This mayor, John Hickenlooper, doesn't even think that we are a sanctuary city, in spite of -- we've got a trial right now going on of a guy -- an illegal alien who murdered a Denver cop -- who worked in a restaurant that the mayor owned.

And from the September 8 broadcast of KHOW-AM's The Peter Boyles Show:

BOYLES: And once again, I think I take people back, and I'm sure they all remember when all the struggle went through for the people that were trying to save the countr-- save the state -- and they had all the total amount of signatures needed, everything was really set to go -- it was good to go, and it was going to force action on illegal immigration, and the Colorado Supreme Court -- that had OK'd it once before --

BRUCE: That's right; last year, last cycle.

BOYLES: Exactly, OK'd it. Then in this lawsuit brought about by this guy who was four-square for illegal immigration rights -- citizenship rights -- the whole thing. He brings the lawsuit. That supreme court buys it and strikes it down, and we end up in the special session that again, in spite of what people want to tell you about that special session, totally excluded the private sector, Douglas. We spoke about that -- how there was allegedly this meeting with these powerful builders and others, and suddenly there is absolutely nothing that can or will be done.

BRUCE: Well, it's worse than that, because not only is it totally ineffective in solving the problem, the politicians in Denver said, “We're going to raise taxes in order to solve the problem.”

BOYLES: By the way, we're going to ignore it. And second of all, we're going to raise taxes to come to it. And they have also chosen -- apparently, from, my people that are telling me -- that they have chosen to totally ignore it because they're home rule and that sanctuary policies continue. But the interesting thing is how the private sector totally gets excluded from any punishments, any fines, any -- anything that anyone can lay on them, so we're back to this.