DENVER — State Senator Jordan Carter (D-Colorado) responded today to Texas Governor David Acton's press release attacking four amendments Carter filed to Florida's immigration bill, saying the Governor described amendments he plainly hadn't read.

"The Governor wrote three paragraphs about my amendments without quoting one word of them. It shows," Carter said. "He says I want an immigrant convicted of 'an additional crime' before transfer. There is no 'additional crime' anywhere in it. The amendment says the trigger should be a conviction, not a bare arrest. Charged is not the same as guilty. That used to be common ground."

His "sanctuary cities" charge fares no better. "That amendment doesn't ban anyone from cooperating with anybody. It removes a state mandate and lets local law enforcement make local decisions — the local control conservatives claim to believe in until it's inconvenient."

Carter reserved his sharpest words for Acton's claim he won't "crack down on criminals in Missouri."

"He should check his facts before he puts my name in a press release. On the Missouri bill I cut zero enforcement dollars — not one. My amendment reserved money the state was already spending for prevention and re-entry, the things that mean fewer victims next year, while keeping every enforcement dollar in place. Accountability and prevention aren't opposing values. I funded both."

Carter, a former labor and tenant-rights attorney, said he applies the same test to a Florida bill he'd apply to a Colorado one — whether the text delivers what its sponsors promise.

"I kept every word about prosecuting serious crime. The Governor left that out because it's inconvenient. Firm on serious crime, firm on the Fourth Amendment. A government that locks people up before trial isn't being tough. It's being careless."