Secure Borders & Immigration | Chris Richardson | Colorado House District 56 

“America should remain a nation that welcomes legal immigrants while enforcing its borders and immigration laws. Compassion and the rule of law are not opposing principles, we need both.” 

Learn how Representative Chris Richardson supports secure borders, lawful immigration, cooperation with federal authorities, public safety, responsible use of taxpayer resources, and equal enforcement of the law. 

We are both a Nation of Immigrants and a Nation of Laws

America has welcomed generations of people seeking freedom, opportunity, and a better life.

Many arrived with little more than determination. They worked, built businesses, served in our Armed Forces, raised families, and strengthened the communities they adopted as their own.

That tradition is worth preserving. So is the rule of law.

A nation has both the authority and the responsibility to know who enters, establish lawful immigration requirements, protect its citizens, and enforce the decisions of its courts.

Those principles are not anti-immigrant. They are basic responsibilities of sovereign government.

As a retired Army officer, I understand that borders matter. As a former county commissioner, I understand that failures in federal policy create real consequences for states, counties, schools, hospitals, law enforcement agencies, charities, and taxpayers.

As your State Representative, I support a secure border, orderly legal immigration, cooperation among levels of government, and fair treatment under the law.

I reject the false choice between compassion and enforcement. Colorado can respect the dignity of every person without undermining the laws that protect our communities and preserve confidence in legal immigration.

Why Immigration Policy Matters to House District 56

Colorado does not share an international border, but that does not mean federal border policy has no effect here.

Agriculture depends heavily upon a dependable workforce and workable legal visa programs. Schools must educate every child who enters their classrooms. Hospitals provide emergency treatment regardless of a patient’s immigration status. Local law enforcement encounters individuals wanted by federal immigration authorities. Housing, transportation, human services, and nonprofit organizations all feel the effects of rapid population changes.

These pressures can be especially difficult in rural communities with limited staffing, fewer healthcare providers, smaller tax bases, and little capacity to absorb unfunded responsibilities.

Immigration policy should therefore be judged not only by intentions, but also by its effects on public safety, taxpayers, employers, lawful immigrants, and the institutions expected to respond.

The Current Situation

Federal enforcement conditions have changed significantly since the record encounter levels of the early 2020s. Customs and Border Protection reports that southwest-border encounters fell sharply during 2025 and remained far below the prior peaks through the first part of fiscal year 2026. That improvement demonstrates an important point: enforcement policy affects behavior, and government is not powerless to restore order.

However, lower crossing numbers do not resolve the underlying problems in the immigration system. The United States still needs:

• a secure and consistently enforced border;

• faster and more credible asylum decisions;

• functional legal-worker programs;

• effective visa tracking;

• timely removal of individuals ordered to leave;

• and an immigration process that does not leave applicants waiting in uncertainty for years.

Colorado must pursue state policy to supporting assist lawful federal enforcement rather than its current course of deliberately making that enforcement more difficult.

My Principles

Secure the Border

Border security is primarily a federal responsibility.

The federal government should maintain sufficient personnel, technology, physical infrastructure, detention capacity, and judicial resources to prevent unlawful entry and quickly resolve immigration cases.

A border that can be crossed without meaningful consequence encourages exploitation. It empowers smugglers. It enriches cartels. It exposes migrants to violence and abuse. It also undermines public trust in the legal immigration system.

Security is not cruelty. A predictable, orderly border is safer for citizens, law enforcement officers, and migrants alike.

Support Legal Immigration

Legal immigration has strengthened America.

People who follow the process, satisfy the requirements, and commit themselves to our laws deserve a system that is understandable, timely, and fair. Unfortunately, the current system can be slow, expensive, and difficult to navigate. Congress should modernize legal pathways while maintaining appropriate security and eligibility standards. Reform should include better processing for:

• spouses and close family members;

• agricultural workers;

• high-demand professionals;

• refugees facing genuine persecution;

• and applicants seeking citizenship through established legal channels.

Legal immigration should be encouraged by making the lawful process work—not by allowing illegal entry to become the easier alternative.

Enforce the Law Consistently

Laws that are not enforced are not meaningful laws.

Government should not create one set of expectations for citizens and lawful immigrants while signaling that other people may disregard the process without consequence. Consistent enforcement protects fairness. It also protects those who spent years completing applications, paying fees, attending interviews, and waiting for lawful status.

Respect for immigrants includes respect for those who followed the law.

Protect Constitutional Rights

Immigration enforcement must comply with the Constitution.

Citizens and noncitizens alike possess important protections against unlawful searches, arbitrary detention, discrimination, and government abuse. Due process should be real. Claims should be heard. Facts should be established.

Government officials who violate constitutional rights should be held accountable under established law. But constitutional safeguards should not be distorted into a broad policy of obstruction that prevents lawful cooperation or enforcement.

Protecting civil rights and enforcing immigration law can occur at the same time.

Cooperation with Federal Immigration Authorities

Federal agencies enforce federal immigration law, but state and local governments frequently encounter individuals already in their custody for other alleged or proven offenses.

In those circumstances, basic communication between agencies can improve public safety and reduce risk.

Colorado law currently restricts significant forms of state and local cooperation with federal immigration authorities. State and local officers generally may not arrest or detain a person solely on the basis of a civil ICE detainer. Colorado also prohibits certain information sharing and bars state and local governments from entering or renewing immigration-detention agreements with the federal government.

The General Assembly expanded those restrictions in 2025. Among other provisions, SB25-276 prohibited delaying a defendant’s release for an immigration operation, broadened limits involving personal information, and extended restrictions affecting peace officers, probation personnel, schools, healthcare facilities, and other public entities.

I opposed SB25-276. My concern was not with protecting lawful civil rights. Those protections should be honored.

My concern was that the legislation further limited practical cooperation and created additional barriers between Colorado officials and federal authorities—even when someone was already in custody and federal officers sought to act.

A safer policy would allow lawful, carefully defined cooperation involving individuals arrested for serious crimes, repeat offenders, and people subject to enforceable removal orders. Local officers should not be turned into federal immigration agents, but they have a critical role to play and state law should not force them to obstruct, conceal, or complicate legitimate federal enforcement.

My Legislative Record

I co-sponsored SB25-047, legislation intended to reverse several Colorado laws restricting cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.

The bill would have restored requirements for local governments to notify officers of their duties concerning immigration-related information and would have reversed statutory provisions limiting cooperation with federal authorities. It did not become law. 

I also opposed SB25-276 because it expanded Colorado’s restrictions on agency cooperation and information handling.

My position has remained consistent:

• Colorado should not become an enforcement arm for every federal responsibility.

• Colorado should not impede lawful federal officers carrying out legitimate duties.

• Individuals accused of crimes deserve due process.

• Individuals convicted of serious crimes should not be shielded from lawful immigration consequences.

• Citizens, lawful residents, and legal immigrants deserve a government that applies the law fairly.

In 2026, the General Assembly continued debating measures involving immigration enforcement, detention-facility oversight, officer training, personal information, and civil remedies. HB26-1276, which became law, expanded state inspection authority over civil immigration detention facilities and required training for peace officers on Colorado’s existing detainer restrictions.

These debates show that immigration policy is no longer confined to Washington. Colorado lawmakers are actively deciding whether state institutions will facilitate, regulate, restrict, or oppose federal enforcement.

I will continue approaching those decisions through the lenses of constitutional rights, public safety, federalism, and responsible government.

Public Safety Must Come First

Illegal immigration and violent crime are not synonymous. Most immigrants, including many people without lawful status, are not violent criminals. We should speak honestly and avoid painting entire communities with a broad brush. At the same time, when an individual who is unlawfully present commits a serious crime, government should act decisively. Victims should never be told that immigration status is irrelevant when it directly affects whether an offender may be transferred, released, or removed.

Colorado should prioritize federal notification and cooperation involving:

• violent offenders;

• sexual predators;

• organized gang members;

• human traffickers;

• fentanyl and narcotics traffickers;

• repeat offenders;

• and individuals subject to enforceable judicial warrants or final removal orders.

The purpose is not collective punishment. It is preventing additional victims.

Fentanyl, Human Trafficking, and Cartels

An unsecured border creates opportunities for criminal organizations.

Cartels profit from human smuggling, narcotics trafficking, extortion, and exploitation. Migrants may be charged enormous sums, threatened, assaulted, or forced to work off debts after arriving in the United States. Women and children are especially vulnerable. A functioning border and credible legal process reduce the market controlled by smugglers. Colorado should support federal efforts targeting:

• fentanyl distribution networks;

• human trafficking organizations;

• fraudulent-document operations;

• criminal gangs;

• and employers who knowingly exploit unauthorized workers.

Enforcement should focus not only on individuals entering illegally, but also on organizations and businesses that profit by abusing them.

Agriculture and Legal Workforce Needs

Agriculture faces genuine labor shortages.

Farmers, ranchers, dairies, processors, and other agricultural employers need reliable access to workers during critical seasons.

The current federal agricultural visa system is often criticized as slow, costly, administratively burdensome, and poorly matched to the realities of year-round livestock operations. That should change.

I support practical reforms that:

• streamline lawful agricultural worker programs;

• protect workers from exploitation;

• give employers predictable access to labor;

• enforce fair employment standards;

• and prevent legal employers from being undercut by businesses knowingly using unlawful labor.

Border security and agricultural workforce reform should advance together. Employers need legal pathways that work. Workers should be protected from abuse, but allowed to make decisions that best serve themselves and their families.

The public needs confidence that the law is being followed.

Taxpayer Responsibility

States and local governments should be transparent about the public cost of immigration-related programs.

Colorado law now includes an Office of New Americans, immigration legal-defense initiatives, integration grants, and access to certain state and local benefits for people without lawful status. The nonpartisan Legislative Council’s February 2026 review confirms that Colorado has expanded immigrant-service programs and eligibility in several areas while simultaneously restricting enforcement cooperation.

Some programs may serve legitimate public-health, workforce, humanitarian, or legal purposes.

But every expenditure should be disclosed clearly and evaluated alongside competing obligations to schools, transportation, public safety, people with disabilities, veterans, rural hospitals, and other essential services.

Compassion does not eliminate the need for budgeting.

State government should never conceal costs, blur eligibility requirements, or create benefits without acknowledging their long-term obligations.

Refugees and Asylum

Refugees fleeing persecution deserve careful and humane consideration.

America has a proud tradition of protecting people who genuinely face violence because of their religion, ethnicity, political views, or other protected status.

But the asylum system must distinguish valid claims from claims used primarily to delay removal or gain entry. Colorado should recognise and support federal primacy in these matters. Cases should be decided promptly. Applicants with credible claims should receive protection.

Applicants whose claims are rejected after fair proceedings should comply with lawful removal orders. Years of delay serve no one.

They leave families in uncertainty, overwhelm courts, weaken deterrence, and reduce public confidence.

Citizenship and Integration

Immigration succeeds best when newcomers become fully invested members of their communities. That means learning English, understanding our constitutional system, obeying the law, participating in civic life, working, supporting families, and embracing the responsibilities that accompany American freedom.

Integration does not require abandoning family traditions or heritage. It means building a shared civic identity.

America can celebrate diverse backgrounds while still expecting commitment to common laws and constitutional principles.

Citizenship should remain meaningful because it represents more than permission to reside here. It represents membership in a self-governing nation.

A Better Direction

A responsible immigration policy should:

• secure the border;

• strengthen ports of entry;

• improve technology and staffing;

• speed asylum and immigration-court decisions;

• modernize legal immigration;

• repair agricultural worker programs;

• remove serious criminal offenders;

• allow lawful cooperation among agencies;

• protect constitutional rights;

• target cartels, traffickers, and exploitative employers;

• disclose state and local costs;

• and promote citizenship and successful integration.

No single level of government can solve every aspect of immigration.

Congress must repair federal law.

The executive branch must enforce it.

Courts must provide timely due process.

States must protect their residents without obstructing lawful federal authority.

Local governments must retain the ability to protect their communities.

My Priorities

Immigration control and border control are federal responsibility.  As a state legislator, my focus is on state policy that compliments and does not disrupt federal efforts in this are.  We must work side-by-side to:

• Secure the national border

• Support orderly legal immigration

• Improve agricultural visa programs

• Protect constitutional due process

• Restore lawful agency cooperation

• Remove violent and repeat criminal offenders

• Combat fentanyl and human trafficking

• Protect taxpayers through honest cost reporting

• Oppose sanctuary policies

• Promote citizenship and civic integration

• Protect victims of crime

• Hold exploitative employers accountable

Related Issues

• Public Safety

• Constitutional Rights

• Agriculture & Rural Colorado

• Taxpayer Protection & TABOR

• Local Control

• Businesses & Jobs

Closing

America’s immigration story is one of courage, sacrifice, and opportunity. It is the story of people who came here because this country offered something precious: freedom under law.

We honor that story by keeping legal immigration strong, citizenship meaningful, borders secure, and laws fairly enforced. We should treat every person with dignity. We should protect genuine refugees. We should welcome those who follow the lawful process. We should punish traffickers and smugglers who exploit vulnerable people.

And we should never allow political convenience to replace the basic responsibilities of government.

As your State Representative, I will continue supporting policies that protect Colorado communities, respect constitutional rights, strengthen legal immigration, and restore confidence that our laws apply consistently to everyone.