In the early morning hours of Mother’s Day 2005, Denver Police Detective Donny Young was assassinated in cold blood by an illegal alien. Young was working off duty in uniform with Detective John Bishop at the Solano Ocampo Hall to earn extra income to support his wife and two young daughters. Illegal alien Raul Gomez-Garcia approached and shot both officers in the back. Detective Young was critically wounded, while Bishop was saved by his bulletproof vest.¹
 
Detective Young had received the Medal of Honor Award, 10 official commendations, the Distinguished Service Cross Award, and two letters of commendation.
 
Killer Gomez-Garcia (aka Garcia-Gomez) fled to Mexico after the murder, where he was arrested and returned to Denver. But the extradition was predicated on an agreement between the Denver District Attorney and Mexico that he would not file charges carrying a life sentence or the death penalty - apparently Mexico is very sensitive to the needs of their criminal class. Gomez-Garcia, with the number “13” etched into the back of his head, was sentenced to 80 years. (“M” is the 13th letter of the alphabet and often represents the Surenos gang and typically designates “Murder” or “Mexican”.)²
 
Sadly, the story gets even more convoluted.
 
Just hours after the heinous assassination, illegal alien Gomez-Garcia reported for a full shift at the Cherry Cricket restaurant where he worked. In order to get the job, he had provided a fraudulent Social Security card which had been used in three states by three other illegals.³
 
The restaurant where Gomez-Garcia worked was owned by none other than Denver’s Mayor John Hickenlooper. Ironically, in December of 2005 Hickenlooper was the keynote speaker at a fundraiser burrito breakfast for El Centro Humanitario para los Trabajadores - Denver’s illegal alien hiring hall.⁴
 
It was later revealed that Gomez-Garcia had been stopped for traffic violations three times.³ When asked why Gomez-Garcia had not been turned over to ICE, Hickenlooper replied “these are complicated issues.”³
 
“Complicated,” indeed.

 
Sanctuary Cities
 
A sanctuary city is one where official or unofficial policy is deliberately lenient on illegal aliens who have escaped capture at the U.S. border. Denver, Boulder, and Durango are notable sanctuary cities in Colorado.
 
Although Gomez-Garcia had been stopped for traffic violations, Denver’s Police Manual stated that “Denver Police officers shall not initiate police actions with the primary objective of discovering the immigration status of a person,” and that if immigration enforcement action is to be taken, the on duty supervisor must approve it and the commander must be notified.⁵ This disempowering ruling was a byproduct of former Mayor Webb’s Executive Order 116 that Denver “will vigorously preserve the legal rights of all of its residents”^5,8 (emphasis added).
 
In 2005 the United States Supreme Court ruled that asking about immigration status during a lawful police contact (or, by implication, any lawful contact) was as fundamental a question as asking for name, address and date of birth.⁷
 
Then in 2006, in a significant act of immigration sanity, sanctuary cities were banned in Colorado with the passage of Senate Bill 90. SB 90 requires all local law enforcement officers to report to federal immigration officials any person arrested in their jurisdiction who they reasonably believe to be an illegal alien.⁸
 
Yet while the media claimed that Denver was no longer a sanctuary city, research reported by the Colorado Alliance for Immigration Reform demonstrates otherwise - that in practice, Denver indeed remains a sanctuary city for illegal aliens. For example, 181 Colorado cities and counties reported zero contacts with ICE in 2007, yet none were audited for compliance with SB 90.⁸
 

The Colorado Carnage Continues
 
Here are but a few shocking entries from the long list of crimes committed by illegal aliens in Colorado:
 
On September 4, 2008, three-year old Marten Kudlis was enjoying an ice cream cone at a window table at Baskin-Robbins in Aurora, Colorado. Illegal alien Francis Hernandez ran a nearby stop light at over 80 miles per hour, impacting a pickup and propelling it into the ice cream store. Little Marten Kudlis was killed, along with the driver of the pickup and her passenger.⁹
 
Hernandez was sentenced to only 60 years for his act, notwithstanding the Kudlis family’s pleas for the full sentencing of 108 years hard time,
 
Star quarterback John Hessler with the University of Colorado was drafted as a pitcher by the Colorado Rockies. When he retired from sports, Hessler taught social studies and coached football.
 
On October 19, 2004, Hessler was rear-ended by a truck as he was driving in Adams County northeast of Denver. He was hospitalized in a coma for 33 days and still used a walker four years later.
 
The truck was owned by illegal aliens Ricardo I. Anchondo-Gomez and Olga L. Huerta. They fled the scene and have never been apprehended.¹⁰
 
As businessman Christopher Woodby was riding his bicycle on October 2, 2006 in Boulder (still effectively a sanctuary city), he was struck and killed by illegal alien Guadalupe Garcia Gutierrez - who, incidentally, was driving without a license or insurance.¹¹
 
Devoted husband and father Justin Goodman was riding his motorcycle in Thorton, Colorado on July 1, 2004. He was struck by a Ford Explorer. The driver never stopped, leaving Justin to die at the curb.
 
The illegal alien driver, Roberto Martinez-Ruiz, was eventually apprehended. For eight years, he had used six different aliases. His rap sheet included driving under the influence, failure to appear in court, driving with a revoked license, and hit and run. Even though he had spent time in jail, no local law enforcement agency, judge or prosecutor had ever contacted immigration officials.¹²
 
On September 15, 2006, Apolinar Ortega-Val-tierra and Eduardo Bocanegra abducted a 13-year-old girl from a party and held her at an apartment for several hours, sexually assaulting her.13 Were the perpetrators illegal aliens? Probably. Greeley, Colorado is home to a large number of illegal aliens who work in the local meat packing industry. However, the liberal mainstream media goes to great lengths to avoid revealing such sensitive matters as race and legal status.
 
An illegal alien struck Sandy Ross and her son while they were driving home from church in Greeley in September 2005. She eventually lost her job and her home as a result of the accident.¹⁴
 
The number of “immigrants” in Greeley was reported as rising by60 percent between 2000 and 2006. Law enforcement officials noted that this increase has proportionately driven up crime by illegal aliens.¹⁴
 
Wilson Chilel-Lopez was arrested in Colorado Springs in October 2010 on a charge of molesting a 3-year-old girl. The media reported that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) placed a hold on Chilel-Lopez, so it’s a good bet that he was an illegal alien.¹⁵
 
Jaclyn Funderburg failed to return home on July 11, 2007 after her job at Wendy’s in Colorado Springs. Her body was found in a field eleven days later with broken ribs, a broken spine, and a crushed skull. Her ex-boyfriend, Salvator Esquivel-Castillo, was arrested on murder charges and was placed on hold by ICE.¹⁶
 
In March of 2004, Rene Analco-Tlatenco was speeding while drunk in Evans, Colorado when he broadsided a car containing six people. The driver, Gloria Mercado, was killed in the accident. He was on probation from a prior DUI conviction, but was never deported.¹⁷
 
Crimes by illegal aliens are inflicted not only upon U.S. citizens. Illegal-on-illegal crime is prevalent and violent.
 
Jorge M. Valdez was convicted of raping his former girlfriend at knifepoint in Eagle, near Vail, in 2007 after learning that she had dated other men.¹⁸
 
In June of 2007, Hilario Martinez-Fabela beat his wife to death in Colorado and then fled to Mexico with their daughter. Although it took a year to complete the extradition process, he was sentenced in 2010 to the maximum of 60 years.¹⁹
 
Two children were kidnapped in September, 2004, from Colorado by an estranged boyfriend of the children’s mother. He was found with the children in Mexico and arrested.²⁰
 
In Greeley during 2002 and 2003, Maria Gaspar endured two years of beatings by her boyfriend. After Gaspar obtained a restraining order, her boyfriend was deported to his home country of Guatemala. Several years later, Gaspar was also deported back home to Guatemala, where her ex-boyfriend found her and began again to beat her.
 
Gaspar is trying to obtain a new visa called the U Visa, which is issued to non-citizen victims of serious crime. Weld County District Attorney Ken Buck quite reasonably questioned why an illegal alien, now back in their home country, should be rewarded for helping law enforcement and as a result obtaining law enforcement protection.²¹
 

The “Undocumented”
 
The vast majority of the so-called “undocumented” illegal aliens in fact have complete sets of documentation - albeit fraudulent documentation. For example, in 2006, Vail resident Jeremy Lepore received a letter from the IRS asking for $4,600 in back taxes for jobs he never held. He was stunned to learn that two illegal aliens had used his Social Security Number to obtain the jobs.
 
Avon police Detective Paul Arnold said, “I’d say probably about three quarters of the illegals I’ve dealt with here get false documents. With the number of illegals here in the valley, I’d say there are thousands of them.”²²
 
Colorado Springs resident Nancy Law suffered the same fate when her Social Security number was stolen by an illegal alien using the name of Nancy Morales. Scott Weber, head of the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Denver, said “I’ve seen some illegals go through 15 or 20 years of their lives, and their whole identity is based on a bogus Social Security card.”
 
Special Agent Lon Garner, head of the Denver office of the U.S. Secret Service, the primary federal agency dealing with counterfeit documents, observed, “From that one piece of identification you can devastate a person’s life. They open up bank accounts. We’ve seen them purchase homes.”²³
 

A Course of Action
 
In 2006, it was reported that one out of every twenty-one Coloradans was an illegal alien and that at least 220,000 illegal aliens resided in Colorado.²⁴
 
The total cost of illegal immigration to Colorado for Medicaid, K-12, incarceration, and education was found to be over $1 billion per year in 2006. That stunning amount includes over $64 million of State General funds spent on Medicaid for illegals. Colorado workers also suffer an economic loss of $2 billion caused by the downward drag of illegal labor on wages paid by Colorado employers.²⁴
 
It is abundantly clear that the official number of 8 million to 12 million illegals residing in the United States is under-reported; it has not changed for years. The Social Contract reported on this and presented independent studies concluding that 20 million to 30 million illegal aliens are likely living un-apprehended in the United States.25 It is to be expected that the numbers of crimes committed by illegal aliens will be at least proportional to their component of the overall population.
 
The consequences of the illegal alien crime wave are being borne by the citizens of the United States as the communal price to be paid for providing corporate interests with an unending supply of cheap, foreign labor.
 
What needs to be done?
 
Enact laws in all states requiring use of the federal E-Verify program to ensure that those applying for jobs are lawfully present.
 
In June, 2006, as a result of the Defend Colorado Now initiative to deny public benefits to illegal aliens, HB 1023 was passed, which requires applicants for public benefits to affirm that they are lawfully present in the country. The bill therefore denies most non-emergency services to illegal aliens over the age of 18, but it does not include the all-important component of mandatory E-Verify use.²⁶
 
Fortunately some states are beginning to wrest control of immigration policy back from the irresponsible feds who refuse to enforce existing immigration law, including interior enforcement and securing our borders. In May 2011, Georgia passed HB 87, conceptualized and spearheaded by D.A. King of the Dustin Inman Society, which requires use of the federal E-Verify program to prevent employers from hiring illegal alien labor to take jobs Americans will do.²⁷
 
Also in May 2011, the United States Supreme Court upheld Arizona’s mandatory requirement for use of E-Verify.²⁸ This astounding win for state-based interior enforcement has moved the policy rudder significantly towards the direction of immigration sanity - and undoubtedly has left the Chamber of Commerce and the open borders subversives crying in their beer.
 
Secure the border from unarmed - and armed - invasion. American Border Patrol has surveyed the entire U.S. - Mexico border, and has determined that a secure fence has not been constructed as mandated by Congress, notwithstanding Administration claims.²⁹
 
Analysis has determined that at $1.7 million per mile, the entire U.S.-Mexico border could be sealed off for $3.3 billion dollars. This amount represents just 3.2 percent of the $104 billion spent on highway construction annually and 0.7 percent of the FY 2004 defense budget.³⁰
 
Eliminate the “anchor baby” birthright citizenship misinterpretation of the 14th Amendment giving citizenship to children born to illegal aliens.³¹
 
Coloradans have suffered enough from crime which would not have occurred in the first place had our immigration laws been enforced. It is time to steer Colorado - and our country - in the direction of immigration sanity for the sake of our children…of all races.
 


Endnotes
 
1. "Denver Police Officer Shot, Killed," 7 News, May 8, 2005
 
2. Howard Pankratz, "Gomez-Garcia gets the max: 80 years," The Denver Post, October 26, 2006
 
3. "Injured Police Detective Describes Partner’s Fatal Shooting," 7 News, May 12, 2005
 
4. "Denver’s El Centro hiring hall for illegal aliens," Colorado Alliance for Immigration Reform, 2005 (with photos)
 
5. "Denver Police Manual" excerpt, 100 - 90, Colorado Alliance for Immigration Reform, 2005
 
6. "Denver Mayor Wellington E. Webb Press Conference," Colorado Alliance for Immigration Reform, March 7, 2005
 
Bruce Finley, "Mayor Webb at Rosalindas" [Announcing Executive Order 116 - Denver’s Sanctuary Policy], The Denver Post, March 8, 1998
 
7. "Legal references and information on immigration," Colorado Alliance for Immigration Reform, 2005
 
8. "Sanctuary policies for illegal aliens," Colorado Alliance for Immigration Reform, 2010
 
9. Carlos Illescas, "Driver in Aurora ice-cream-shop crash sentenced to 60 years," The Denver Post, April 6, 2010
 
"Alien Sentenced in Colorado Ice Cream Shop Crash," LimitsToGrowth.org, April 16, 2010
 
10. David Plat, "Former CU Quarterback John Hessler in Critical Condition after Auto Accident," Colorado Buffaloes, October 20, 2003
 
"Owners in hit-and-run have abandoned home," Daily Camera, October 24, 2003
 
"CU qurterback John Hessler seriously injured in hit-and-run accident caused by suspected illegal aliens," Victims of Illegal Alien Crime, circa 2003
 
11. Julie Brooks, "Police investigating fatal accident - City of Boulder press release," October 3, 2006
 
"Accident leaves cyclist braindead," Daily Camera, October 3, 2006
 
12. "Family Of Hit-And-Run Victim Angry That Illegal Immigrant Was Never Deported - Martinez-Ruiz Had Numerous Arrests, But Immigration Was Never Notified," 7 News, February 8, 2005
 
13. "Man pleads guilty in kidnapping/rape case," Greely Tribune, November 21, 2007
 
14. Monte Whaley, "Immigration strains Greeley - Angered by a growing number of crimes committed by illegal immigrants, many residents favor an immigration office in the city," Denver Post, September 19, 1997
 
15. Dave Gibson, "Illegal alien arrested for molesting 3-year-old-girl in Colorado," Examiner.com, October 31, 2010
 
16. Sarah Pulliam, "Body found is that of missing woman," The Gazette, July 24, 2007
 
17. Phil Yates, "Driver flees police, crashes; 1 dead," Greeley Tribune, March 7, 2004
 
18. Steve Lynn, "Man found guilty of rape at knifepoint," Vail Daily, March 23, 2007
 
19. "Homicide Investigation," Denver Daily News, May 25, 2010
 
20. Press release, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, September 14, 2004 (courtesy Predatory Aliens)
 
21. Chris Casey, "When Crime Victims Are Illegal Immigrants," Greeley Tribune,
 
22. J.K. Perry, "Illegals buying stolen identities," Vail Daily, December 6, 2006
 
23. Michael Riley, "Illicit Use of Social Security Information Rises," The Denver Post, April 7, 2007
 
24. Donald Rice, "A Compendium of Illegal Immigration Data," Defend Colorado Now, March 28, 2006
 
Overview of the study A Compendium of Illegal Immigration Data, Defend Colorado Now, March 28, 2006
 
25. "How many illegal aliens are in the U.S.?," The Social Contract, Summer, 2007
 
26. 2006 Colorado Immigration Reform Legislative Summary, Defend Colorado Now, August 1, 2006
 
27. House Bill 87 (as passed House and Senate), Georgia legislature, 2011
 
The Dustin Inman Society
 
28. Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America et al. v. Whiting et al., Supreme Court of the United States, May 26, 2011
 
(U.S. Supreme Court Ruling on Arizona E-Verify)
 
29. "Border Enforcement Evaluation First," American Border Patrol, circa 2007
 
"Border Fence Fraud - This is Not a Fence," video, American Border Patrol, February 12, 2009
 
"Border Fence Cover Up," video, American Border Patrol, June 19, 2009
 
30. Edwin S. Rubenstein, "How Come We Can Have 40,000 miles of Interstate, But Not 2,000 Miles of Border Fence?" Vdare.com, October 20. 2004
 
31. Fred Elbel, "Misinterpretation of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution," www.14thAmendment.us, 2007