Beauprez bombshell could backfire

So what's this big bombshell Bob Beauprez is going to drop on Tuesday? Well, for Beauprez's sake, I hope it doesn't involve the words "immigrant," "deportation" or "plea bargain." That seems to be the GOP's latest line of attack against Bill Ritter. And it's a phenomenally dumb one for three reasons:

1. Ritter's record on illegal immigration is much stronger than Beauprez's.

2. The Colorado Democrats' record on illegal immigration is much stronger than the Colorado GOP's.

3. The last thing Colorado taxpayers need is a system bogged down by a flood of deportations. From today's Denver Post:

Immigration courts face such a surge that judges recently testified in Congress that fairness is threatened. The government's 212 immigration judges completed 352,287 cases in fiscal year 2005 - an average of 1,662 cases per judge, 35 percent more than in 2001 with only four more judges.

The immigration-court workload in Colorado has doubled. Three judges and their staff handle more than 2,600 cases a year. Attorneys face four-month waits to have cases heard.

It seems all of Colorado needs to adopt Ritter's approach to illegal immigration (summarized here), which helped solve the problem without burdening the taxpayers. If Beauprez says otherwise tomorrow, he's going to embarrass himself.