Feds fail to act on soaring reports of foreign-born in jail

Burt Hubbard
Rocky Mountain News
June 24, 2007

DENVER (AP) — Police agencies in Colorado turned over the names of at least 15,000 suspected illegal immigrants to federal authorities during the second half of last year. Their offenses ranged from minor infractions to first-degree felonies but each referral was in compliance with a new state law designed to get tough on illegal immigration.

Law enforcement officials, however, debate whether the new law is having its intended effect.

They said they doubt the enhanced reporting has led to any more deportations of criminal illegal immigrants.

“I still sense that there is simply no infrastructure in the federal system in place to actually do anything with these undocumented aliens beyond the occasional, token deportations,â€