Do the benefits outweigh the costs? That is the question voters must ask about .
The ballot initiative would amend the Colorado Constitution to require state and local law enforcement to notify the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) when a suspect who could be in the U.S illegally is charged with a violent crime.
Police officers, sheriff鈥檚 deputies, and prosecutors would also have to alert federal agents when charging a person of a lesser crime if he or she has a prior felony conviction and is suspected of being an illegal immigrant. The constitutional amendment would override Colorado statutes that prohibit state and local law enforcement from sharing such information with federal authorities without a warrant.
Certainly, Colorado will be a safer place without individuals suspected of murder, first-degree assault, kidnapping or aggravated robbery and convicted felons suspected of committing yet another crime. Jails are crowded enough. Suspects who aren鈥檛 supposed to here in the first place shouldn鈥檛 take up space awaiting arraignment. Worse, if released on bail or a recognizance bond, such criminals may not return to face the charges. Evading justice and deportation, they could victimize Americans again.
This is not a hypothetical scenario. A former chief U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration for the Rocky Mountain region told The Denver Gazette that foreign drug cartel operatives picked Colorado as a hub for their operations because they could bond out without being turned over to federal officers.
Why aren鈥檛 state and local law enforcement working with the feds? The Colorado legislature passed sanctuary laws to prohibit such communication. The laws ensure residents and victims do not fear approaching state and local law enforcement to report a crime out of fear of being turned over to ICE.
The desire to protect victims and encourage trust in law enforcement is laudable, but do existing laws go too far in prohibiting cooperation with federal authorities regarding suspects of violent crime and felons in the country illegally? The DEA chief鈥檚 remarks suggest that is likely and the legislature should revisit the subject next year.
Revising the law to enable inter-agency communication when warranted is not what Amendment 81 would do, however. The way the ballot proposal is written, illegal immigrants not guilty of violent crimes and even American citizens could find themselves in the back of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) van. If innocent people are impacted, the trust state and local law enforcement has worked to build with communities will surely diminish.
Under the proposal, Colorado law enforcement would have to 鈥渕ake a reasonable effort鈥� to determine the citizenship of the individual charged with the crime, but the text does not define how officers should determine whether or not a person is here legally. By not defining 鈥渞easonable effort鈥� the ambiguous language could lead, as Denver District Attorney John Walsh has stated, to abuse.
Legal immigrants and American citizens could be turned over to ICE simply for the way they look. An investigation by ProPublica found that more than 50 Americans have been detained by ICE agents after they were questioned about their U.S. citizenship. Most of these citizens were Latino. One citizen, a U.S. combat veteran, George Retes was held for three days without the opportunity to meet with a lawyer. He聽missed his daughter鈥檚 third birthday. No Coloradan should have to experience this.
To make matters worse, Amendment 81 does not specify who among law enforcement should notify the DHS. Police officers and sheriff’s deputies apprehend suspects, but prosecutors are the ones who file charges. Which of these state and local law enforcement personnel should notify the feds? If the district attorney declines to file charges against a suspect of a crime, could local law enforcement contact the feds nonetheless? Could a person charged but later found innocent by a jury end up in ICE custody?
The purpose of Amendment 81 is to ensure illegal immigrants who are violent or repeat criminals do not stay in Colorado jails or return to Colorado communities; they get deported. Due to the ambiguous wording, however, it is likely innocent Coloradans who are not the proposal鈥檚 target will become just that. The cost is simply too great. It tips the scale for me to vote no.
Krista Kafer is a Sunday Denver Post columnist.
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