Colorado Congressional delegation non-committal about taking up Allard immigration reform

November 21, 2008

Andrew Villegas

Retiring U.S. Senator Wayne Allard hopes someone will carry his torch to solve the information gap between the IRS and Department of Homeland Security in enforcement of U.S. immigration law.

When he asked Senate colleagues this week to take a closer look at his proposal to close that gap, he referenced northern Colorado’s latest identity theft bust where officials say about 1,300 illegal immigrants stole or made up identities in order to collect $2.5 million in tax returns, often much more than they paid into the system.

Allard said then that he knew his legislation probably wouldn’t be considered this week, but that he hoped someone in Colorado’s delegation would take his cause up when Congress reconvenes.

But with immigration still very much a hot button issue and Colorado’s growing Democratic delegation, it remains to be seen how many of his colleagues are up to the task of taking that torch up.

Most of Colorado’s delegation refers to the U.S. immigration system as “broken,â€