«I don't believe we have the right to tell folks at the local level how to run their communities. They have the right to decide these things for themselves. If I had a business, I ought to have the right to do what I want with it.»

«We need to get all this information on the table.»

«Because of the fact that we're under higher education, they don't look at this as an educational priority. We shouldn't be there. We should be under tourism or economic development. We can't compete with the rest of higher education.»

«The thing about this is, it's dividing the nation. We should be communicating with each other over this. We should sit down with federal lawmakers, governors in (U.S.) border states, and the governors of Mexican border states. Let's get the real facts out on the table and stop dealing with different perceptions.»

«If I go along with this resolution, I'm not representing my district at all. On a 10-1 vote, the committee did approve a measure going after the so-called coyotes who bring illegal immigrants to the state. ? In fact, it's not representing the state of Colorado to go along with what you're trying to do here. I can understand the problems we're having with illegal immigration, but please remember that many of us have been here a long time. I go back five generations. I and my forefathers have been using Spanish for a long, long time, before the United States was the United States.»