latest legislative session.
One of these bills proposed sanctioning Colorado communities that do not assist federal immigration authorities. The other would require verification of the identities of voters.
The State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee voted 3-2, with Democratic senators prevailing, to reject the bill that would have denied funds for municipalities that did not participate in the federal Secure Communities program.
The program is already operating as a pilot program in three counties in Colorado. It lets local authorities use federal databases to determine the immigration status and criminal record of immigrants who have been arrested. For now, the program is optional, but 2013, participation will be mandatory across the United States.
A representative for the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition said Secure Communities was “a mass deportation dragnet program, pure and simple” Proponents of the bill have advocated that violent crimes such assault, sex crimes, homocides, human trafficking and robbery occur more frequently among undocumented people.
Democrat legislators also said no to another bill that required proof of citizenship before one could register to vote. It also authorized Colorado’s secretary of state to discount the votes of anyone who did not supply sufficient proof of citizenship. The purpose of the bill was to reduce election fraud, but proponents gave no examples of non-citizens casting ballots.
“Why is this not something else than a witch hunt?” asked a Democratic senator.
The same Republican senator sponsored both bills.
He told NYC Criminal Lawyers, “Senate Democrats continually say illegal immigration is a federal problem that cannot be addressed on the state level. Yet just this morning they voted to grant in-state tuition to illegal immigrants.”
The Democratic majority in the Colorado Senate did approve a bill that would let undocumented students at state universities pay tuition at a lower in-state rate, so long as they were in the process of regularizing their immigration status. The Republican-dominated House of Representatives in Colorado does not expect it to pass.
The Republican senator said, “What this bill really does is incentivizing foreigners to come to this country illegally.”
Laws can and do change often. Fortunately, there are people like NYC Criminal Lawyers to keep track of them. You don’t have to wade through the tangle of legal complications alone when you have a NYC Criminal Lawyer representing you to cut through the clutter.