New laws: State cracks down on human smuggling
By ED SEALOVER
June 30, 2007 - 2:55PM
Beginning today, Colorado is committing state resources to the war on illegal immigration.

Though an effort to change the federal system collapsed in Congress last week, the Colorado State Patrol is rolling out a $2.2 million, 24-member unit to crack down on human smuggling and trafficking and on illegal immigration.

The patrol is the latest addition to a group of slightly more than a dozen state units across the country that have been given immigration enforcement authority by the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. Though the Colorado troopers will spend most of their time carrying out typical patrol duties, they will put on their new hats when they or other state troopers pull over a vehicle that is suspected to be carrying a load of illegals across the state.

Created under a 2006 state law, the unit is meant to target the smuggling and selling of humans.

“I’m sure that it will be news on the street very quickly that Colorado has a contingent of State Patrol whose job is solely to stop human trafficking,â€