The Immigration Debate

Recently the hot political topic has been illegal immigration, and since Colorado is one of the states most affected by this issue, state government has published a variety of resources on this topic. One of these is a new series of bulletins published by the Colorado Department of Corrections, Foreign Born and I.C.E. Detainer Incarcerated Population. These bulletins give statistical information on the number of foreign-born inmates in Colorado and the percentage of these for which “there is indication that an inmate may meet deportation criteria.” For example, as of 1/31/06, 69.14% of Colorado’s foreign-born inmates were I.C.E. Detainers.

In addition, several bills have been introduced in the 2006 legislative session, including SB06-090, which if passed would prohibit illegal immigration sanctuaries. Other introduced bills would, if passed, allow law enforcement to detain persons in the country illegally (HB06-1134), limit workers compensation benefits to undocumented workers (SB06-098), require proof of citizenship when registering to vote (SB06-146), and others. All bills can be viewed at the Colorado Legislature’s homepage.