In its first month on the job, the Colorado State Patrol's Immigration Enforcement Unit had results that "exceed anyone's expectations," according to the executive director of the Department of Public Safety.

In Aug. 31 memo to Gov. Bill Ritter, public-safety director Peter Weir reported that the team in July encountered more than 150 illegal immigrants, including four identified as aggravated felons and 15 criminals.

A total of 87 people were detained, Weir reported, in cases that included overloaded vehicles transporting illegal immigrants and illegal drug and alcohol use by drivers and passengers.

The first month was "noteworthy and remarkably successful in pursuing both traffic-safety and immigration-enforcement goals," Weir wrote. "I am confident that the public's expectations and legislative mandates are being fulfilled completely by these very effective efforts of the Colorado State Patrol."

His memo noted that none of the new unit's cases had worked their way through the judicial system.

State lawmakers created the immigration unit in 2006, giving it the power to crack down on human trafficking and smuggling on state highways.

Earlier this month, The Denver Post reported that in one stop made by the State Patrol's immigration-enforcement unit in western Colorado, officers were forced to release 18 suspected illegal immigrants after the Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement failed to respond to the patrol's request for assistance
http://www.denverpost.com/nationworld/ci_6853205