Thread: Secure Communities participation won’t be forced by Colora

Secure Communities participation won’t be forced by Colorado

By Joseph Boven | 04.19.11 | 2:20 pm

A bill that would have pulled state funding from local governments refusing to participate in the controversial Secure Communities program died in the Senate Monday. HB 1140, sponsored by Sen. Ted Harvey, R-Highlands Ranch, and Rep. David Balmer, R-Centennial , met its end under fire from immigrant advocates who termed the program a racist immigration dragnet and from rural communities who saw it as an unfunded mandate they simply could not support.

Sen. Ted Harvey speaking on Secure Communities program (Boven)

The bill, which was pushed in the House as a means to remove dangerous convicted criminal aliens, would have denied any local government refusing to comply with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement program both cigarette and severance tax funds dispersed by the state. That money would have then been dispersed instead to communities who were taking part in the program.

Former Gov. Bill Ritter signed a memorandum of agreement in January with the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement office to bring Secure Communities to Colorado. The program is designed to target criminal illegal aliens first, but does extend to those who have not committed previous crimes beyond being in the country illegally.

“In reality it is a mass deportation dragnet,â€

Non criminals? Sometimes I feel like Alice in wonderland where nothing is as it should be. All illegals are criminals, whether they cross the border, steal identities or use false documents to screw the system.