Colorado immigration panel urges leverage for cops
By Tim Hoover
The Denver Post

http://www.denverpost.com/nationworld/ci_11389148

A panel looking at how local authorities enforce immigration laws says state legislators should give police more power to seize the cash and other assets of illegal immigrants who commit crimes.

And the federal government should develop a national ID card that uses fingerprints or DNA to help police learn whether someone is in the country legally.

Those are just two of the recommendations from the 31-member immigration working group that Gov. Bill Ritter appointed last year following an Aurora case in which three people died in a collision involving a vehicle driven by an illegal immigrant.

The bulk of the recommendations puts much of the onus for enforcement on the federal government and pleads for Congress to address the issue. Several recommendations call for more funding to help local law enforcement agencies deal with the problem.

"Fundamentally, it (immigration) is a federal issue, and fundamentally, more resources at the state and federal level need to be directed" to the problem, said Peter Weir, Colorado Department of Public Safety director and the panel chairman.

Ritter, a former prosecutor, was still looking over the recommendations but praised the panel for its work.

"I think it's telling that this problem is a pretty complex one," the Democratic governor said, "because at the end of the day, there's no panacea, there is no one solution, to solve how law enforcement officers at the state or federal level must treat this issue."

Ritter formed the panel after the case of Francis Hernandez, an illegal immigrant accused of driving a car that was involved in a wreck that killed three people in Aurora in September.

Hernandez, a native of Guatemala, had been arrested many times, and there were dozens of warrants for his arrest for failing to appear in court. He also had never possessed a driver's license.

Other recommendations include:

• Getting federal funding to expand a program that trains local police agencies to enforce immigration laws in cooperation with federal authorities.

• Expanding federal detention space for illegal immigrants and loosening federal requirements for local jails to house illegal immigrants.

• Getting the federal government to fully compensate local law enforcement agencies for the costs of detaining illegal immigrants.

• Revising state laws on human trafficking to mirror federal law.

In one of its more controversial recommendations, the panel said lawmakers should revise the state's asset forfeiture laws "to deter criminal activity, including those committed by illegal aliens."

Proceeds should go to pay law enforcement agencies' costs in apprehending criminals, the report recommended.

In 2002, the state significantly tightened up asset seizure laws, requiring that assets can be seized only when someone has been convicted of a crime and when prosecutors prove by clear and convincing evidence the assets were gotten as the result of a crime or used to commit the crime. The seized assets also no longer enrich police departments and instead go to local governments and for drug treatment programs.

Ritter said he would listen to proposals to use asset seizures in some cases, such as when drugs are being imported, but did not support the indiscriminate seizures of illegal immigrants' assets.

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