The border with Mexico must be secure.
This requirement is the cornerstone of an immigration reform bill a bipartisan group of senators are to file on Capitol Hill Tuesday. There will be no path to legal residency for migrants without it.
Undocumented immigrants may also not reach the status of fully legal residents under the proposed legislation, until the Department of Homeland Security has implemented measures to prevent "unauthorized workers from obtaining employment in the United States."
FULL STORYA "major winter storm" was developing over the western Plains on Monday evening, promising "a plethora of interesting weather conditions," The National Weather Service's Weather Prediction Center said.
"Blizzard conditions are likely over parts of Wyoming, Colorado, western Nebraska and western Kansas" beginning late Monday and lasting through much of Tuesday, the weather service said.
The Denver metro area could see as much as a foot of snow, and the foothills and mountains can expect even more than that.
Colorado Springs police have arrested a man who authorities want to question in relation to the March shooting death of prison chief Tom Clements.
James Lohr, who police said is a member of a white supremacist prison gang, is an associate of Evan Ebel, the man suspected of killing Clements, Lt. Jeff Kramer of the El Paso County, Colorado, sheriff's department said.
Lohr had multiple misdemeanor warrants out for his arrest, and it was not immediately clear if he is facing new charges.
In addition to Lohr, police were on the lookout for another Ebel associate, Thomas Guolee, 31.
FULL STORYColorado authorities are looking for two members of the white supremacist prison gang known as the 211 Crew in connection with the killing of state prisons chief Tom Clements.
El Paso County Sheriff's Office identified the two men as James Lohr, 47, and Thomas Guolee, 31. One or both could be headed toward Nevada, the office said.
"They are both known associates of the 211 Crew," said Sheriff's Lt. Jeff Kramer. "They are believed to be armed and dangerous."
Clements was widely recognized for cracking down on prison gangs, including the 211 Crew. He was shot at his home by former gang member Evan Ebel, who was out of prison on parole.
FULL STORY
Evan Ebel, the man suspected of killing the head of the Colorado prison system, was written up for 28 violations during his incarceration in the state, according to records released Thursday by the Colorado Department of Corrections.
Ebel said he would make the guard "beg for her life" if he ever saw her on the streets, records indicate. He also was involved in two fights and three cases of assault and was written up for 28 violations during his imprisonment, the reports said.
FULL STORYThe 28-year-old convict suspected of shooting to death Colorado's prison chief left prison wearing an ankle bracelet tracking device when he was paroled, according to a Colorado law enforcement official who has examined Evan Ebel's prison case file.
While that new detail emerged Thursday, a 22-year-old woman police say is connected to the case appeared in court.
Stevie Marie Vigil of Commerce City made a "straw purchase" from a weapons dealer and gave the gun to Evan Ebel, a convicted felon who could not purchase his own firearm, according to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.
Colorado prisons chief Tom Clements was shot to death at his home outside Colorado Springs on March 19. Ebel, 28, was killed two days later in northern Texas in a gun battle with authorities that left a sheriff's deputy wounded.
FULL STORY
A 22-year-old woman is accused of buying the weapon used to kill Colorado prison chief Tom Clements last week and funneling the weapon to the alleged gunman.
The Colorado Bureau of Investigation said Stevie Marie Vigil of Commerce City, Colorado, was arrested Wednesday night. Authorities say she made a "straw purchase" from a weapons dealer and transferred the weapon to Evan Ebel, a convicted felon who could not purchase his own firearm.
FULL STORY
Aurora, Colorado, shooting suspect James Holmes has offered to plead guilty and spend the rest of his life behind bars in exchange for avoiding the death penalty, according to court documents filed Wednesday.
Prosecutors have not accepted the offer because they may choose to pursue the death penalty. Prosecutors have said they will make a decision on whether or not to seek the death penalty against the 25-year-old Holmes at a hearing April 1.
FULL STORYTexas authorities said Tuesday that investigators found bomb-making materials in the car of Evan Ebel, the man suspected of killing Tom Clements, the Colorado prison system chief.
A report from the Texas Department of Public Safety said officers found the bomb-making materials in a duffel bag in the trunk as well as instructions on how to make an explosive device.
Texas Rangers also discovered tan pants with apparent blood on them in a cooler.
Clements was shot to death March 19 at his home outside Colorado Springs. Ebel was mortally wounded two days later in northern Texas in a gunbattle with authorities that also left a sheriff's deputy wounded.
FULL STORY The bullets that killed Colorado prison chief Tom Clements came from the gun found with a former inmate who died in a shootout with Texas police two days later, investigators confirmed Monday.
The news came as Colorado held a public memorial service for Clements, the executive director of the state Department of Corrections. The El Paso, Texas, County Sheriff's Department said it was still trying to determine whether the suspect in Clements' slaying, Evan Ebel, acted alone or what his motive may have been.
FULL POST
Colorado investigators are in Decatur, Texas, Friday morning eager to examine evidence found in a black Cadillac whose driver might have been involved in the slaying of Colorado's prison system chief.
The driver was Evan Ebel, a former Colorado prison inmate, El Paso County, Colorado, Undersheriff Paula Presley confirmed to CNN Friday. He died Thursday evening after being shot at the end of a high-speed chase that followed the wounding of a deputy.
Ebel is the focus of the investigation into the shooting Tuesday of Colorado corrections chief Tom Clements, who was shot dead Tuesday evening as he opened the door of his rural Colorado home.
FULL STORY[Posted at 12:57 p.m. ET] While the investigation into the slaying of Colorado's prison chief is "wide open," a top law enforcement official told CNN that one case involving a Saudi national is being considered.
When asked if any cases have risen to the top in the search for who killed Tom Clements, El Paso County Undersheriff Paula Presley brought up a case involving Homaidan al-Turki.
"There has been, you know, one case in specific that has been mentioned, certainly that the media has mentioned, with al-Turki, who was denied transfer back to Saudi Arabia. And certainly that has been in the media in the last 24 hours," Presley said, referring to reports in both the Denver Post and CNN affiliate the Denver Channel. Read more about this case
[Posted at 11:25 a.m. ET] Colorado beefed up security at the governor's office and other statewide locations amid the search for the person who gunned down the state's prison chief at his home less than 48 hours earlier, law enforcement said.
Tom Clements was shot dead Tuesday night after opening the door at his home in Monument, about 50 miles south of Denver.
"We are looking at all potential tips, leads, threats that Mr. Clements may have had from anybody in that prison system," El Paso County Undersheriff Paula Presley told CNN on Thursday. "The investigation is wide open at this point."
[Posted at 10:19 a.m. ET] The executive director of Colorado's prison system was shot when he opened his door, according to a 911 caller that police have identified as a relative in the home.
El Paso County Sheriff's deputies arrived at Tom Clements' Black Forest home - about 20 miles outside Colorado Springs - to find the 58-year-old dead Tuesday night, said Lt. Jeff Kramer.
[Posted at 9:47 a.m. ET] The executive director of Colorado's prison system has been found dead in his home, and authorities believe someone killed him, a spokesman for Gov. John Hickenlooper said early Wednesday.
Tom Clements, executive director of the Colorado Department of Corrections, was found dead at his home in Black Forest, Colorado, spokesman Eric Brown said.
FULL STORY
After witnessing two of the deadliest mass shootings in U.S. history, Colorado is expected to pass a series of gun control laws Wednesday.
Gov. John Hickenlooper will sign three bills into law Wednesday, his office said. The new legislation includes:
- A 15-ammunition limit on magazines;
- A universal background check for prospective gun buyers; and
- A requirement for gun purchasers to pay for their own background checks
FULL STORY[Posted at 12:59 p.m. ET] A judge on Tuesday entered a standard plea of not guilty for James Holmes, the man suspected in a mass shooting at a Colorado movie theater, after he and his attorneys said they were not ready to enter a plea.
Holmes' attorneys had suggested in court documents that they might enter a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity for the shooting rampage at the theater that left 12 people dead and 58 injured on July 20, 2012.
[Posted at 1:11 a.m. ET] James Holmes, the man accused of killing 12 people in a Colorado movie theater last summer, is expected to enter a plea Tuesday.
On Monday, a judge ruled that if Holmes pleads guilty by reason of insanity, he will have to waive all medical confidentiality and turn over the name of any doctor or psychologist who may have treated him.
Judge William Sylvester also said Holmes will have to agree to a state psychiatric exam and to be drugged by doctors to assess his condition.
FULL STORYA 30-car accident and bad weather caused the closure of Interstate 70 in and around Vail, Colorado, around 1:30 p.m. MT (3:30 p.m. ET), said Mindy Crane, the spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Transportation.
"We were seeing blizzard conditions up in that area," Crane said, adding the closure will likely be "fairly lengthy." "We have not been able to find out if there are any injuries or fatalities."
Lawyers for James Holmes, the Aurora, Colorado, mass shooting suspect, took aim against the state's insanity defense laws in court documents made public Friday.
"Colorado's statutory scheme regarding the affirmative defense of insanity, and the introduction of any 'mental condition' evidence at trial or sentencing, is unconstitutional in many individual respects," they wrote in a 60-page motion and brief filed Thursday.
The lawyers said parts of the state's insanity defense laws are unconstitutional.
Among other issues, they cited the requirement that a defendant "cooperate" with examining psychiatrists as a violation of the defendant's privilege against compelled self-incrimination.
Prosecutors have not said whether they will pursue the death penalty against Holmes, who is charged with 166 counts, including murder, attempted murder and other offenses in the July 20 shooting rampage in a movie theater that left 12 people dead and scores injured.
Holmes is awaiting formal arraignment on the charges.
FULL STORYThe parents of a transgender girl rejected a central argument Thursday from the school that won't allow their child to use the girl's restroom.
"They're punishing a 6-year-old for something that hasn't happened and may not happen," said Kathryn Mathis, mother of 6-year-old Coy Mathis, who was born with a boy's body but identifies as a girl. Mathis and her husband Jeremy, sitting alongside their daughter, spoke with CNN's "Starting Point."
The Colorado school, in a December letter to the parents, said that "as Coy grows older and his male genitals develop along with the rest of his body, at least some parents and students are likely to become uncomfortable with his continued use of the girls' restroom."
A legal fund has field suit on the family's behalf, putting Colorado's anti-discrimination law to a new test.
FULL STORYA civil rights complaint is being filed on behalf of a transgendered child barred by her Colorado school district from using girls' restrooms, an advocacy group said Wednesday.
The complaint to a Colorado civil rights agency, on behalf of 6-year-old Coy Mathis, will be the first to challenge a restriction on a transgender person's bathroom use under Colorado's anti-discrimination laws, the Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund told reporters in Denver.
First-grader Coy, who was born with male sex organs but identifies herself as female, had been allowed to use her school's girls' bathrooms until school officials barred her from doing so after winter break, her family says.
FULL STORY
Austin Sigg must face trial on 18 of 20 counts relating to the killing of 10-year-old Jessica Ridgeway and an attack on a jogger last year, a spokesman for Colorado’s courts said Friday in a Tweet.
Rob McCallum made the announcement after Sigg appeared before Jefferson County Judge Stephen Munsinger in a preliminary hearing. The arraignment is set for March 12; Sigg remains on no-bond hold.
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