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ICE Office to Open in Colorado Springs
April 26, 2007 5:13 PM
[LISTEN]
WHITNEY: Colorado Springs is getting an ICE office. ICE being the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. Some local elected leaders, including Sheriff Terry Maketa, have been lobbying for a federal Immigration enforcement office here for more than a year. Today Senator Wayne Allard said he received a report from the agency saying it plans to open ICE offices in Colorado Springs and Greeley. Allards office says they could open within months. Steve Wymer, a spokesman for the senator, says the agency will use existing funding to shift resources to the Springs and Greeley.
WYMER: Its a puzzle of law enforcement across the state and now the pieces are coming together in a way that specifically address the needs in El Paso and Weld counties. 08
WHITNEY: Senator Allard has been lobbying for the offices at the request of El Paso and Weld County officials. El Paso County Commissioner Jim Bensberg called the announcement good news, as did Weld County District Attorney Kenneth Buck. Bensberg says local law enforcement needs help, and that the focus of the new ICE office wont necessarily be on busting people just for being in the country illegally.
BENSBERG: we see them focusing on folks who have already committed a crime, and were not about trying to seek out illegal aliens, wherever they might be. Our concern is when they cross the line and enter into our county jails, as a result of a criminal act, and thats when we want the federal government to take the custody and authority of these folks and deal with it at a federal level and relieve the county taxpayers of what essentially amounts to an unfunded mandate.
WHITNEY: Its unclear where criminal aliens would be locked up once theyre arrested. Bensberg says the county jail already has near crisis levels of inmates who are in the country illegally. There is a federal holding facility in Aurora, but it is often too full to take inmates off the hands of local law enforcement. Bensberg says an ICE office in Colorado Springs is just the first step to solving that problem.
BENSBERG: It will force the feds to realize they need to expand the number of holding facilities, and this is just the first part in the equation.
WHITNEY: Attempts to reach immigrant rights groups in Colorado for comment on the potential impact of new federal immigration enforcement offices in Colorado Springs and Greeley were unsuccessful as of our deadline. Likewise, the regional ICE office said they have not yet been given any information on when the new offices might open, how many agents might staff them, or what their budgets might be.
Posted by Eric Whitney on April 26, 2007 5:13 PM | Permalink
