Gov. Bill Owens today signed into law a trio of controversial bills launching a variety of changes designed to trim Colorado’s welfare and public service rolls of more than 50,000 illegal immigrants.
Some of the laws go into effect Tuesday and require anyone applying for a public benefit ranging from cash assistance to license certification to provide proof they are legally in the United States.
Other laws, such as those requiring identification from professional license applicants, are effective Jan. 1, 2007.
The Department of Revenue announced it had added six additional documents that can be used to provide proof of legal residency, including birth certificates, adoption records, U.S. citizenship or naturalization papers, driver’s licenses from other some other states, and foreign passports. The Legislature had allowed just four forms of identification, but left it to revenue officials to determine whether that list should be expanded.
The expanded list is valid until March 1 and legislators can adopt them.
The department also approved rules for special one-time waivers for public benefit applicants who don’t have an acceptable form of identification. Those individuals will receive an electronic identifier, to be stored in a state-run database, that will suffice until they eventually obtain one of the necessary forms of ID, Revenue Director M. Michael Cooke said.
About 1 million Coloradans receive some form of public aid and Owens has said about 50,000 of them are illegal immigrants.
