Colorado passes legislation that penalizes immigrants for extortion and threats

The bill that punishes extortion and threats to immigrants, including undocumented immigrants, was approved in the Colorado State Senate

Photo: Mariela Lombard / El Diario

For: EFE 21 of April 2021

DENVER, Colorado – With the unanimous endorsement of Democrats and Republicans, the Senate of Colorado gave final approval on Wednesday to a bill that criminalizes extortion and threats to immigrants , either to demand money from them, force them to submit to ungrateful tasks or to prevent them from reporting crimes or abuses.

The new law, known as HB 21 – 1057 and sponsored by the State Senator Robert Rodríguez , is part of a package of a dozen laws (some still under debate) that seek protect immigrants from Colorado from the consequences covid pandemic – 19 yd and acts of racism and discrimination.

“This law is a public safety law. If we value public safety and want all crimes to be reported, then it is critical to ensure that the victims of those crimes, regardless of their immigration status, never have to worry about reporting crimes to law enforcement agencies ”, d ijo Rodríguez, Democrat of Denver, during the debate before the final vote.

According to the legislator, the new measure will allow immigrants, with or without legal presence in the country, who are victims of domestic violence, physical abuse, human trafficking, forced labor, wage theft “or any other illegal activity” report these illegal acts to the competent authorities.

Rodríguez emphasized that the law protects immigrants “from the social realities that undocumented communities face so regularly throughout Colorado. ”

According to the Census Bureau, almost 10% of Colorado’s 5.7 million residents are from abroad. And according to the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition (CIRC), some 80, 01 undocumented living in this state.

The HB law 21 – 1200 exposes the criminal extortion protection measures that have existed in Colorado for almost four decades but which, so far, did not include the undocumented or contemplate circumstances such as crimes against the undocumented precisely because of their precarious immigration situation.

Recently, for example, a former Republican politician was arrested in western Colorado for extorting an unknown number of immigrants, receiving from each of victims thousands of dollars to prevent the now detainee reported them to the Immigration and Customs Service (ICE).

In another case, in Boulder County (northwest of Denver) a victim of domestic violence did not report her attacker due to threats to “have her deported” . And in yet another case, a contractor stopped paying its immigrant employees, indicating that he would call ICE if they complained.

According to Rodríguez, “all these scenarios and many more are now covered by the new law so that in no case is the immigration status of a person used to extort them.”