Thread: CO-Lawmakers consider immigration enforcement audit

Lawmakers consider immigration enforcement audit
By Tim Hoover
The Denver Post
Article Launched: 09/23/2008 01:32:06 PM MDT




The Legislative Audit Committee voted to authorize State Auditor Sally Symanski to do preliminary research on conducting such an audit. Symanski expected that the inquiry would look at how state and local law-enforcement agencies and the judicial system interacted in the case of Francis Hernandez, 23, an illegal immigrant who had been arrested more than a dozen times in the previous five years and served jail time but was never deported.

Hernandez is accused of driving a vehicle that earlier this month in Aurora struck a pickup, killing two women as well as a 3-year-old boy who was in a nearby ice-cream shop.

"This is a topic that involves every level of government," Symanski said during the audit committee's meeting today.

She noted that her office has no authority to audit federal agencies and only limited authority to audit local governments.

State Reps. Morgan Carroll and Karen Middleton and state Sen. Suzanne Williams, all Aurora Democrats, requested the audit.

State law requires police to tell federal authorities when they have detained a suspect believed to be an illegal immigrant.

While Aurora police reported Hernandez to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in April, ICE never came to pick him up, and he was released from jail.

But committee member Sen. David Schultheis, R-Colorado Springs, said the state has a role to play in restricting illegal immigration too.

"We don't have to just say the federal government is the sole problem," Schultheis said. "There's a lot we can do."

Symanski will report back to the committee at its November meeting, where members will decide whether to proceed with the audit.

Tim Hoover: 303-954-1626 or thoover@denverpost.com



http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_10538808

Sounds to me that they are stalling and waiting for a mass amnesty.