Undocumented residents are granted new opportunities following the passing of a Colorado law.
SB21-077 is a new statewide bill which eliminates the need for an individual to prove their lawful presence in the United States through documentation when applying for a professional, business or occupational license, according to the Colorado General Assembly website.
Similarly, any person applying for a state or local license, certificate or registration also was obligated to prove their legal presence in the state. The same rule applied for individuals seeking license renewals.
The passing of Colorado bill SB21-077 reverses these requirements, now allowing all Colorado residents — no matter the legitimacy of their documentation status — to use their professional credentials to improve their personal economics as well as the local economy as a whole, Lorena Garcia, executive director of the Colorado Parent Coalition, said.
Undocumented residents are no longer forced to work in secret, Garcia said.
“We have so many incredible neighbors who are so talented and who are doing incredible work,” Garcia said, “and prior to this law, they were having to do it in secret. But now they don’t — they can have a registered business, they can show their qualifications and it just makes it better.”
Working in secret before may have meant using one’s professional skills to work for friends, family and neighbors, according to Garcia. For example, an individual might use their car mechanic training, learned in their home country, to make money. Before the law passed, these individuals would have needed a professional license to work legitimately in their field.
According to Garcia, this law to eliminate undocumented residents’ ability to obtain a business license has a much broader reach than just the undocumented immigrant community – people who might be experiencing homelessness or escaping domestic abuse will also benefit from the new law, she said.
The Executive Director of Hope For Longmont, Alice Sueltenfuss, works with homeless individuals in the community to get the documentation they need – birth certificates, drivers licenses and social security cards – in order to apply for jobs or affordable housing, among other things, she said.
However, the process to obtain such documentation is very difficult, she said, and consists of research, gathering information and contacting other government agencies.
Even when Sueltenfuss does her due diligence on behalf of an undocumented client, the process can take several years or fall through at some point due to a lack of information, she said, which leaves the person in the same position they were in beforehand.
For some, this law may mark the difference between having to undergo the taxing process of trying to obtain documentation, Sueltenfuss said.
According to Amelia Lobo, the public policy specialist at Violence Free Colorado, the law will open employment opportunities which will lead to financial stability for domestic abuse survivors.
“One of the things (Violence Free Colorado) very frequently sees in abusive relationships is economic abuse,” Lobo explained. “Economic abuse can look a lot of different ways – like a partner who’s abusive, controlling their partner’s finances, sabotaging the survivor's attempts to get a job, forbidding them from getting a job, stealing their identity, taking out credit cards in their name, etc.”
Consequently, survivors of this kind of abuse sometimes lose their personal documentation to their abuser, according to Lobo.
By not having to provide this kind of personal documentation to apply for such licenses, the law “can help a survivor have access to that financial stability, which is helpful,” Lobo said.
