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Gov. Ritter panel on illegals urges more training, tougher laws

By Judi Villa, Rocky Mountain News

Published November 17, 2008 at 7:17 p.m.
Updated November 17, 2008 at 7:17 p.m.

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Gov. Bill Ritter ordered the working group after an illegal immigrant with a lengthy arrest record broadsided a pickup truck, killing two women and a 3-year-boy eating ice cream inside this Aurora Baskin-Robbins.

Darin Mcgregor / The Rocky

Gov. Bill Ritter ordered the working group after an illegal immigrant with a lengthy arrest record broadsided a pickup truck, killing two women and a 3-year-boy eating ice cream inside this Aurora Baskin-Robbins.

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A working group tasked with examining gaps in the state's immigration enforcement has begun to identify specific recommendations for the governor after nearly a month of educational meetings.

The recommendations discussed Monday include training more state and local officers to enforce immigration law, increasing bed space to house suspected illegal immigrants and possibly tweaking state laws to make it tougher for illegal immigrants to be eligible for bond or probation.

"These are some concrete recommendations that we have to address the problem in Colorado," said Peter Weir, executive director of the Colorado Department of Public Safety. "We're not going to solve the problem through this process, but if we can at least identify the problems and offer solutions, even if they're not implemented immediately, I think it's been a positive exercise."

Gov. Bill Ritter ordered the working group after an illegal immigrant with a lengthy arrest record, mostly for misdemeanor traffic offenses, broadsided a pickup truck in Aurora in September. Two women in the pickup and a 3-year-old boy in an ice-cream shop were killed.

The working group has met five times to discuss all aspects of illegal immigration and enforcement in Colorado. The preliminary recommendations also include more access to federal immigration databases and laws that would block vehicle registration without a valid driver's license and that would allow police to arrest a person and refer them to Immigrations and Customs Enforcement if they are driving without valid identification or with a foreign driver's license that cannot be verified.

Another proposal is to impose a mandatory, minimum 30-day vehicle impound for illegal immigrants convicted of certain traffic offenses.

The panel also said developing a national identification card based on biometric technology, such as fingerprints or DNA, would be helpful to law enforcement.

Sen. John Morse, of Colorado Springs, said the series of meetings has highlighted the complexities of immigration law. But he said finding solutions is akin to figuring out how to get water to flow uphill.

"Absolutely, the intent was to implement solutions," Morse said. "But this is not a simple problem that the state can simply address."

The working group will meet one more time next week. Its recommendations are due to the governor at the end of December.

Comments

  • November 17, 2008

    9:34 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    History writes:

    Morse said. "But this is not a simple problem that the state can simply address."
    I agree - many on this RMN site think we can simply arrest them all, throw them all out, build a wall, and keep them out - that concrete thinking is very limited - this is an incredibly complicated problem - it seems like Ritter's office is taking some common sense solutions, some

  • November 17, 2008

    9:40 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    Hussie writes:

    How about implementing all of the above, and "tweaking" the 30 day impound to forfeiture of the vehicle since ILLEGALS don't have Drivers Licenses or Insurance to begin with?...
    How about cutting off ALL Social Services to ILLEGALS, including those given to their Anchor Babies?...
    How about criminal charges for those who are willingly aiding ILLEGALS in committing crimes, like the Tax Preparer in Greeley?...
    How about collecting DNA or Fingerprints from the ILLEGALS when they're deported, and leaving us LEGAL citizens alone?...
    Keep stripping away their magnet, because it is working...They're now leaving, and we don't want them back...

  • November 17, 2008

    9:43 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    RoyalPayne writes:

    Here's a novel idea. Why dosen't Gov. Ritter call for enforcement, at all levels, on our existing immigration laws?
    Colorado appears to be a state that can pick and choose which laws we will obey when it comes to immigration.
    There are more residents in Colorado that are not in the ag business but then special interest campaign money always speaks the loudest.

  • November 17, 2008

    9:51 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    History writes:

    Just a question here - why does this issue inspire such anger? I am not try to be a smart a@#, just trying to understand other people's points of view

  • November 17, 2008

    10:32 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    BikerChick writes:

    ..
    Governor Ritter wisely empowered a committee to examine the issue of crimes-by-foreign-nationals, and to make recommendations to improve the situation. But we don't have accurate data to scope the issue.

    We need a Colorado law to help us determine the scope of the problem; how much crime is committed by foreign nationals unlawfully present, from which nation does the law-breaker come and what is the degree of each crime. Also, where is the perpetrator unlawfully employed, and by whom.

    We must stop blaming ethnic groups when we don't have data to back-up accusations. Whining about unfunded mandates and complaining about federal agency inaction is just so much hot air; not useful. Local crimes are just that. Likewise local punishment. The nationality of the perpetrator is an independent variable.

    Director Peter Weir can and must quickly ask two Colorado senators, and two Colorado House members, one from each major political party, to co-sponsor and carry a bill to slightly modify the CRS to require all law-enforcement officers to ask key questions and include the answers in a modified traffic ticket and incident-arrest form. Simply recording those responses in the comments section will NOT result in proper data base summations.

    The additional questions include, but are not limited to;

    1. In what city or town were you born ?

    2. In which nation is that community located ?

    3. How old are you ?

    4. What is your date of birth ? (to double-check the response)

    5. Where are you employed ? Location and company.

    6. What is the name of your boss ?

    7. Who hired you for that job ?

    8. What is your ethnic designation ?

    9. What is your primary language ?

    Good cops will tell you that such questions are usually answered truthfully. When the cop is suspicious, he has the option of taking the suspect to the booking sergeant to collect ten-digit fingerprints, iris-scan and a DNA swab to enable the INDEPENDENT identification of the person.

    Do we really have a problem ? In this day and age, as many as four of ten suspects stopped by law-enforcement officers is NOT the person noted on their wallet ID-cards.

    Until we change the Colorado laws to require that LOCAL law-enforcement officers collect more data during each traffic stop or arrest or when an incident report is required, our so-called immigration related local crime problem will be unquantified. We must work hard to quantify the related problems, such as repeated offenses but no incarceration and appropriate punishment.

    This is a no-brainer. Director Weir has a high-priority task here. He can and must seek and obtain permission from Governor Ritter to quickly move ahead with this part of the final actions. Obviously, with this data in-hand, day-to-day federal assistance to Colorado law-enforcement authorities will improve.
    ..

  • November 17, 2008

    10:35 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    History writes:

    BikerChick
    Wow great post, very real world solutions to a problem that i agree we do not fully understand

  • November 18, 2008

    1:42 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    Elwood writes:

    I'm sure the actual changes that come out of this comittee will be more along the lines of how can we make more of them legal and give them special driver's licenses. Real enforcement is a pipe dream, remember that immigration enforcement is a federal responsibility.

  • November 18, 2008

    11:20 a.m.

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    leisureman writes:

    It does not matter where the illegal aliens are from or how they got here. What's important is to enforce existing immigration law in addition to the recently passed Denver impoundment initiative. The solutions are very simple, contrary to some peoples opinion. Punish the employers severely, impound the vehicles of unlicensed and uninsured motorists. And require proof of citizenship for all social services.

  • November 18, 2008

    2:15 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    Brittanicus writes:

    ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION! Purgatory for American taxpayers.
    Remove the 37 million illegal aliens in the United States, according to the Tucson Border Patrol that is costing $$trillions of taxpayers dollars a year. Then we can then afford to give care to our own citizens and legal residents and sustain our wilting economy.

    Senator Poe stated yesterday we are importing the good, bad and the ugly. But if we are to bring in immigrants, they must be the cream at the top of the milk. Not the poor who we must support, because they cannot support themselves?

    Don't let Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid stop immigration raids on illegal alien partners of businesses. Stop Pelosi from underfunding the border fence. Fight Obama and McCain from giving illegal aliens BLANKET AMNESTY.

    Americans who are losing jobs to cheap immigrant labor. In a 1996 study, a Rice University economist estimated that illegal aliens were then displacing 730,000 American workers a year.

    Read about www.judicialwatch.org winning court cases against parasite employers, illegal immigrant groups and corrupt politicians.

    www.numbersusa.com is your HQ, to find the ugly facts not lies

  • November 18, 2008

    2:51 p.m.

    Kukulcan writes:

    (This comment was removed by the site staff.)

  • November 18, 2008

    2:55 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    Kukulcan writes:

    Others claim that their mere presence upon US soil makes them criminals. Yet, that too does not hold up to scrutiny - and the facts;

    "While an illegal alien is subject to deportation, that person's ongoing presence in the United States in and of itself is not a crime, unless that person had been previously deported and regained illegal entry into this country."

    http://www.kscourts.org/Cases-and-Opi...

    Obama says he didn't know aunt was in U.S. illegally

    "Onyango's refusal to leave the country would represent an administrative, noncriminal violation of immigration law, meaning such cases are handled outside the criminal court system."

    http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news...

    Arizona Gov Napolitano veto reflects illegal immigration not a federal crime

    http://whatiknow.freedomblogging.com/...

    Former US Attorney for the southern district of New York, Rudy Giuliani;

    "Glenn, being an illegal immigrant, the 400,000 were not prosecuted for crimes by the federal government, nor could they be. I was U.S. attorney in the southern district of New York. So believe me, I know this. In fact, when you throw an immigrant out of the country, it’s not a criminal proceeding. It’s a civil proceeding."

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDo-ZV...

    U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie Serving the District of New Jersey;

    "Being in this country without proper documentation is not a crime," Christie told more than 60 residents and town officials. "The whole phrase of 'illegal immigrant' connotes that the person, by just being here, is committing a crime."

    Being undocumented may be a civil wrong, but it's not a criminal act, Christie said.

    "Don't let people make you believe that that's a crime that the U.S. Attorney's Office should be doing something about," he added of entering the country illegally. "It is not."

    http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2008...

  • November 18, 2008

    2:58 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    Kukulcan writes:

    The Wall Street Journal Reports that Mexicans sent back $24 billion in remittances to Mexico in 2007;

    http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2008/0...

    The USA is a 14 TRILLION dollar economy, according to the World Bank Reference Table

    http://siteresources.worldbank.org/DA...

    This amounts to 1/6 of 1% of US national income.

    But, keep in mind that

    Mexico = USA #2 Customer

    http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/s...

    Mexico was also the US #2 source of imported oil in 2007, so many of these US exports are paid for in oil.

    http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/oil_gas/pe...

  • November 18, 2008

    3:03 p.m.

    Kukulcan writes:

    (This comment was removed by the site staff.)

  • November 18, 2008

    3:06 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    Kukulcan writes:

    "240,000 illegal alien sex offenders"

    This claim comes from "A Line in the Sand : Confronting the Threat at the Southwest Border"

    PREPARED BY THE MAJORITY STAFF OF THE HOUSE COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY SUBCOMMITTEE ON INVESTIGATIONS
    Rep. MICHAEL T. McCAUL, Chairman

    http://www.house.gov/mccaul/pdf/Inves...

    Included in this screed is a citation to the "Violent Crimes Institute"--which is a ONE WOMAN operation-- run by a woman named Schurman-Kauflin.

    The website for the Violent Crimes Institute gives no indication of any personnel associated with the institute other than Schurman-Kauflin, whose expertise as indicated by the website is not that of a statistician but of a criminal profiler. The website gives no information about her academic training, such as where she earned her doctoral degree or in what academic field.

    Based on her article, Schurman-Kauflin apparently performed the following calculation:

    12,000,000

    (Estimated illegal immigrant population in the U.S.)

    x

    0.02

    (Estimated proportion of apprehended illegal immigrants who were apprehended for sex offenses)

    = 240,000

    (Illegal immigrant sex offenders in the U.S.)

    The most recent GAO data on illegal immigrants incarcerated at the federal, state, and local levels puts the total at approximately 270,000. If 2 percent of this population consists of sex offenders, then the total number of sex offenders would be 5,400.

    http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d05337r.pdf

    Neither the "A Line in the Sand" report nor its source document gives any indication how the apparently inflated number of illegal immigrant sex offenders corresponds with the "105 sexual predators" figure beyond making the assertion that the unsubstantiated data "translates to 93 sex offenders and 12 serial sexual offenders coming across U.S. borders illegally per day."

    http://www.ice.gov/pi/news/insideice/...

    http://colorado.mediamatters.org/item...

    http://www.drdsk.com/articles.html#Il...

    http://www.drdsk.com/articles.html

  • November 18, 2008

    3:07 p.m.

    Kukulcan writes:

    (This comment was removed by the site staff.)

  • November 18, 2008

    3:09 p.m.

    Kukulcan writes:

    (This comment was removed by the site staff.)