Democrats in Senate reject immigrant crackdowns

By The AP
Monday, April 18, 2011

DENVER — Colorado Democrats have driven nails in the coffin of this year’s illegal immigration crackdowns pushed by Republicans.

A Senate committee voted 3-2 today against two GOP-sponsored bills aimed at illegal immigrants.

One of the proposals would have required the Colorado secretary of state to block voters when their citizenship is in doubt. The other measure would withhold some state funding from cities and towns that won’t participate in a federal initiative to identify illegal immigrants through the use of fingerprints when they’re arrested.

Colorado Republicans began this year’s legislative session with an aggressive plan to crack down on illegal immigration, but most of their bills have failed.