Colorado Pols raises an interesting point about a talker of a bill just  introduced by a freshman Colorado Springs lawmaker to penalize “sanctuary cities.” Those would be the Colorado municipalities that – depending on whose spin you hear – either harbor immigrants in the country illegally, or don’t do anything other cities don’t do when their local police don’t enforce federal immigration laws.

Granted, House Bill 1134, sponsored by Republican state Rep. Dave Williams, is not going to be the Democrat-friendly Pols’s preferred approach to immigration policy in general. Yet, the blog also contends there’s a flaw in the measure that could nix its implementation on strictly technical grounds. The potential pitfall is in the bill’s provision permitting “any person who claims that he or she is a victim of any crime committed by an illegal alien who established residency in a sanctuary jurisdiction to file a civil action for compensatory damages against a jurisdiction and against the elected officials of the jurisdiction who were responsible for creating the policy…” Pols writes:

Public officials are immune from most civil lawsuits under the Colorado Governmental Immunity Act. The bill says officials can’t claim immunity in “sanctuary jurisdiction” cases, but that would be vigorously challenged in court.

Of course, as the blog post also reminds us, Williams’s bill has nary a chance of making it out of the Democratic-majority House. Or, as ColoradoPolitics.com’s own Joey Bunch put it when he first reported on the bill just before it was introduced:

Dose of reality: This bill is deader than Abe Lincoln’s cat in the Democratic-led House, where it would be introduced. The bill isn’t even filed yet, and the House State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee – the aptly named “kill committee” – is probably digging a grave for it. Democrats have a 6-3 advantage on the committee. This is DOA.

Killing a first-year lawmaker’s first bill used to be an initiation rite at the Capitol. Which means Williams can chalk it up as a learning experience.