Following Colorado Media Matters item, Post corrected article about Voorhis trial

Following an April 2 Colorado Media Matters item pointing out that an article in that day's Denver Post inaccurately reported that agricultural trespass plea bargains offered by the office of now-Gov. Bill Ritter (D) when he was Denver district attorney allowed illegal immigrants to avoid deportation, the Post published a correction (accessed through the electronic edition) on April 4. The correction (an online version appeared April 3) stated, "The story should have said that agricultural trespass would amount to a non-deportable offense only for those foreign-born residents in the U.S. legally. Illegal immigrants are always subject to deportation."

As Colorado Media Matters noted, the April 2 article by Karen E. Crummy reporting on the trial of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Cory Voorhis stated that "illegal immigrants were regularly pleaded out by Ritter's office from the crimes they actually committed -- which could lead to deportation -- to a fictional charge of agricultural trespass -- a non-deportable offense." However, as Colorado Media Matters has noted repeatedly, while the agricultural trespass plea bargains Ritter's office approved might have helped legal immigrants avoid deportation, illegal immigrants are subject to deportation by federal officials regardless of any state or local pleas to which they agree, according to U.S. law.

According to The Denver Post's April 4 correction:

Because of a reporting error, a story on Wednesday's Page 1B said that illegal immigrants were regularly pleaded out by Bill Ritter's office, when he was Denver district attorney, from the crimes they actually committed to a charge of agricultural trespass, a non-deportable offense. The story should have said that agricultural trespass would amount to a non-deportable offense only for those foreign-born residents in the U.S. legally. Illegal immigrants are always subject to deportation.

Colorado Media Matters also pointed out that the article parenthetically noted, "Records show Denver defendants, including illegal immigrants and U.S. citizens, were given this plea 152 times from 1998 through 2004," without mentioning that other Colorado judicial districts also offered the agricultural trespass plea bargain during the same period -- notably Arapahoe County, which was second to Denver in its use of the plea, according to an October 12, 2006, Rocky Mountain News article.

Voorhis was charged in October 2007 with misusing his access to the National Crime Information Center database to get information later used by 2006 Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Beauprez's campaign in an ad against Ritter.

—C.H.