The number of people getting public assistance in Colorado has barely budged in the 11 weeks since sweeping immigration reform laws were passed, but there has been a surge in people seeking state-issued identification cards needed to get any type of aid.
When the law was passed during the summer, Gov. Bill Owens said it would weed out illegal immigrants wrongly obtaining benefits in Colorado, perhaps as many as 50,000 people, based on the estimated number of undocumented residents here.
A spokesman for Owens did not return a telephone message Wednesday. But others said they were not surprised at the public-assistance numbers.
“Undocumented individuals prefer not to rely on public assistance since they are resourceful and wish to work,” said Sherie Calvillo, executive director of Servicios de la Raza in Denver.
According to the state Department of Human Services, the number of public-aid recipients – 39,500 cases for welfare or related assistance since Aug. 1 – is virtually unchanged from a year earlier. The same is true for the number of food-stamp cases – nearly 89,300 – although the immigration laws don’t affect that type of aid.
The numbers do not paint the full picture of how immigration reform might affect public-assistance numbers because only a fraction of those receiving welfare at the time the law took effect have had to confirm their legal status. Welfare clients are recertified once a year.
Meanwhile, the volume of state-issued identification cards – critical to getting any type of public aid – has exploded since August.
Since Aug. 1, the state has issued nearly 27,000 identification cards, 20 percent more than last year and 50 percent more than state officials had predicted for this year, according to the Colorado Department of Revenue.
At least one state official wonders whether the onslaught of people seeking identification in the law’s first 75 days are those already getting aid legally.
“Simply complying”
“With enough emphasis and publicity on the need for identity documents, it could mean that people are simply complying with the law,” said M. Michael Cooke, the state revenue director, who expanded the types of documents people can use to prove legal presence in the U.S.
“These could be the same clients who are just now getting the identification necessary under the new laws,” she said.
Under Colorado’s stringent immigration laws, public-aid applicants must prove legal presence in the United States. That provision went into effect Aug. 1. A law requiring employers to prove their workers are legally here becomes effective Jan. 1.
In addition to the thousands of people who have obtained a state ID card or a driver’s license, Colorado has a large number of applicants who didn’t return when told their immigration documents didn’t pass initial inspection and required re-examination, Cooke said.
The reasons varied from simple misspellings to suspicious birth certificates and immigration papers.
“There are about 3,000 pending cases,” Cooke said. “But there’s no way to tell whether these individuals were looking to apply for public aid or not.”
Democratic House Speaker Andrew Romanoff, who sponsored the immigration legislation during the special session convened by Owens, said he’s not surprised the welfare rolls are unchanged.
“If the state system of benefits was working before, then in theory you’d not expect a drop in the rolls,” Romanoff said. “To some extent, the law merely codified what the administration said it was already doing.”
Tallying waivers issued
In a related matter, the waivers the state has issued to people who qualify for aid but lacked the proper documents to obtain an ID card or driver’s license – 160 waivers since Aug. 1 – are coming from unexpected parts of the state, Cooke said.
“The waivers are mostly coming out of Larimer and Weld counties and the Fort Collins area,” she said. “We expected them to be largely in Denver, which is why we beefed up our staff there, to handle a workload that never materialized.”
Fewer than half of the waivers were issued in Denver, records show. There were 21 waivers issued in Fort Collins and 17 in Longmont.
Staff writer David Migoya can be reached at 303-954-1506 or dmigoya@denverpost.com.
