Colorado Making Different Plans for Immigrants
Colorado legislators are putting together their own immigration reform plan in light of the Trump Administration's plan to eliminate DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals).
The legislators have put together a plan that would provide a "purple card" for Colorado immigrants if they qualify. The plan would be the first of its kind in the country.
In order to qualify, they will have had to pay Colorado state taxes for the last two years and no felonies for the last three years or they had to have been brought to the state as a minor.
HB18-1230 creates, within the department of labor and employment, a program that would allow certain persons who came to the U.S. without legal documentation, to remain in the U.S. and work legally in the State of Colorado. The purple card they would be issued would allow them to work here.
DACA was a program that allowed individuals who had entered the country as minors to remain for a renewable period of two years to allow them to work.
The "Purple Card" program will carry a cost as yet to be determined that will go into a separate fund specifically for this purpose.
The program will allow those who apply to remain in the country and work, and, according to legislators, will be much better than trying to remove thousands of immigrants who are tax paying members of society who otherwise may end up hiding out, taking advantage of soup kitchens etc and not becoming functioning members of society.
This may end up on the ballot in November if there are enough people against it. We'll be watching.