Say Anything Blog

Here is one from the cry me a fricken river department: illegal aliens are sucking the life out of this country and people are sick and tired of paying taxes and affording benifits to people that have no right to be in this country. What part of illegal do you not understand.

ID law packs fear factor

By Jennifer Brown, Allison Sherry and Elizabeth Aguilera

Denver Post Staff Writers

Article Last Updated: 08/05/2007 12:32:06 AM MDT

Hospitals and nonprofits that help the needy say a law barring state funds for illegal immigrants has kept away those eligible for aid.

David Dawson, executive director of Radio Reading Service of the Rockies, works the control board as a volunteer reads the Boulder Camera on the other side of the glass. The Radio Reading Service of the Rockies is struggling with concerns over House Bill 1023 because they get about 2/3 of their funding from state/local contracts and they don’t know how to “prove” that all of the beneficiaries of the non-profits are legal citizens. The executive director worries that the law will hurt legal senior citizens. (Post / RJ Sangosti)A homeless man tried to yank out his abscessed tooth with pliers and fishing line after he was turned away from three hospitals because he wasn’t an emergency patient and had no proof of U.S. citizenship.

I can see a new program coming, government issued id’s for homeless people.

And some illegal immigrants are too scared to ask for food at soup kitchens or medical care at free clinics - even those funded by private or federal money - because word has spread of a Colorado crackdown on illegal immigration. Not our problems go to your nearest ICE/Border patrol office and they will give you a free trip home.

A year after state lawmakers passed what they called the toughest illegal-immigration

Liz Miller helps client, Paula Atkinson, 44, retrieve a marriage certificate and divorce papers so she can receive a social security card. Miller helped Atkinson get an ID card in just a few days, “It was a great relief,” Atkinson said. laws in the nation, there is no proof illegal immigrants have been caught taking advantage of taxpayers. Instead, there are abundant stories of citizens eligible for services who can’t prove it because they lack the required ID.

Supporters of Colorado’s get-tough stance argue, though, that it’s impossible to tell how many illegal immigrants are not asking for public services because of the new laws.

The centerpiece of Colorado’s anti-illegal-immigration package, passed in a special session last summer, is House Bill 1023. It prohibits spending taxpayer money on illegal immigrants. Exceptions include K-12 education, medical emergencies, immunizations, prenatal care and soup kitchens. Well good the law appears to be working, that is why we have legislatures in the first place.

Concerns about the paperwork required for a Colorado driver’s license or ID card and other consequences of that law already have been documented and addressed by the state.

But health care and social-service providers say effects they consider unintended and absurd run much deeper than most people know.

“We have nothing to show that this law is doing what it was intended to do,” said Maureen Farrell, executive director of the Colorado Center on Law and Policy. “The reality is that more

Even sponsors of HB 1023 concede that its ill effects are numerous.

“Colorado only stepped into the fray because the public demanded it, because Congress was doing nothing,” said Rep. Jim Riesberg, D-Greeley, who co-sponsored the law.

House Speaker Andrew Romanoff, a Denver Democrat who sponsored HB 1023, said lawmakers tried to clear up problems this year.

“We did not intend to deny or delay access to citizens or others of legal residence,” he said.

Other lawmakers, meanwhile, argue HB 1023 doesn’t go far enough.

Schultheis said he believes the law is keeping illegal immigrants from applying for social services in the first place. Good that law is working again, if you don't pay taxes and your not a citizen your not entitled to benifits.

It is estimated there are nearly 12 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. and about 225,000 to 275,000 in Colorado.

Hospitals, too, say they’re paying a price for Colorado’s new illegal-immigration laws. Yeah because the tax payers get stuck with the bill for someone that doesn't belong here in the first place

“The real consequence of HB 1023 is the fear that is instilled in people, both those without documents and those trying to do good for those without documentation,” said David Lack, executive director of the clinic.

Patients who receive care through a state-funded program at the clinic must provide proof of legal residency. If the treatment they seek is funded by the clinic’s privately raised money, they are not required to show proof of legal residency.

“We don’t serve undocumented people; we serve sick people at this clinic,” Lack said. “Their status in this country is less important than their status as a person in need of health care.”

Brad Osborn, who runs a walk-in treatment center for substance abusers in Aspen, said he would never turn anyone away, illegal resident or not.

“What about that person who’s been here for 30 years and doesn’t have documentation? How do we turn those people away?” he said.

About half of the $255,000 annual budget at Osborn’s center, The Right Door, is public money.

A dozen nonprofit organizations say the ban on publicly funded services for illegal immigrants has created more paperwork headaches and confusion for them. Looks like people are actually going to have to work for their pay checks

Instead, they’re creating new accounting methods to comply with HB 1023.

“We have never, as an organization, tracked or cared about what people’s legal status was. If we did have to, that would be an administrative nightmare,” said Suzanne Crawford, chief executive at Sister Carmen Community Center in Lafayette. In my opinion these people are part of the problem.

Making new law workable

Denver Human Services struggled to interpret the new laws just as much as the nonprofits, said Julie Gefke, the agency’s privacy officer.

“It took several months of everybody flying by the seat of their pants before we could nail down these questions,” she said. “All nonprofits were affected somehow.”

DHS created a questionnaire for contractors to determine whether the law applies to them. Most programs for the homeless, including a motel voucher program, do not require legal verification of residency.

“If you come ... and say you have no place to sleep tonight, we will give you a motel voucher and we will not ask for ID,” Gefke said.

Lawmakers tried to tweak ID laws this year in response to complaints from service organizations.

HB 1313 would have allowed applicants for a state ID to prove their identity with insurance records, marriage certificates or tax returns.

Gov. Bill Ritter vetoed the bill so the Department of Revenue could revamp its own rules, which went into effect last week. The department clarified what documents are required and set up an exception process for people who have difficulty producing their records.

Since February, Liz Miller has helped about 400 people piece together their identities.

The Colorado Citizens ID Collaboration Project sprung up because of HB 1023.

Many of Miller’s clients are homeless or disabled people born in other states who have lost their birth certificates and can’t afford to order new ones. Some are elderly and were born at home.

House Bill 1023

Took effect Aug. 1, 2006. Requires all adult applicants for nonemergency public services to prove they are U.S. citizens or legal residents.