Giellis didn’t call immigrants “criminals”
Mayor Michael Hancock’s campaign trashed challenger Jamie Giellis in a new TV ad the weekend before Denver voters receive their ballots for the mayoral runoff election. The attack ads focused on race and immigration, prompting a sharp response from the challenger.
Hancock’s ad led with an accusation that “like Trump, (Giellis) called undocumented immigrants criminals.” The ad began playing Saturday and ballots went in the mail Monday.
In a response, Giellis put out a statement saying that she would not “deceive and divide,” and that the incumbent was “exploiting racial divisions in his desperate attempt to hold onto power when 60% of voters want him out of office.” And she implied that Hancock “sexually harasses women,” a reference to his text-messaging scandal from 2012.
The TV ad referenced a local Republican forum in which Giellis said: “Yes, we won’t tolerate crime or criminal activities, we will comply with authorities, we will comply with (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) in that regard, but immigrants and people coming into our community do provide rich opportunity and diversity that we see other cities really working with.”
Giellis referred several times during the forum to “illegal actions,” but did not say that undocumented immigrants as a group are criminals. Asked about the ad’s claim, a Hancock spokesperson said it was all about delivery.
“Whether they’re saying that they’re all criminals or talking about how criminal activity relates to immigration, that’s six of one, half-dozen of another,” said April Valdez Villa. “… To immigrant communities, those phrases sound very, very much like Donald Trump’s phrases.”
The Hancock campaign pointed specifically to Giellis’ promise to at least partially “comply with ICE” as a potential threat to immigrants.
But the Giellis campaign says that the candidate would only continue the city’s current approach to ICE. Under a 2017 law, Denver complies with federal law by allowing immigration agents who have warrants to access inmates in the city’s jails. Hancock himself said at the forum that Denver is “in full compliance with 1373,” referring to a federal law.
Valdez Villa said that Giellis’ failing was in saying that she would comply with ICE as an agency, rather than simply complying with the law.
In her response, Giellis said her campaign would take the high road.
“Rather than investing in attack ads, the focus of my campaign is undoing the damage of the past eight years to rein in the high cost of housing that has displaced communities of color at historic levels,” she wrote. “… Denver is ready for change. I am leading a broad and diverse coalition to unify the people of this city so that we can meet our challenges and improve our quality of life.”
The Hancock campaign hasn’t yet reported how much money it spent on the ad. The last notable negative advertising in the mayor’s race happened in 2011, when Chris Romer rolled out a campaign critical of then-candidate Michael Hancock.