Police departments in Colorado are largely complying with a 2006 law that requires them to report suspected illegal immigrants that they have arrested, according to a state audit released Monday.

However, the audit said, the law still will not prevent future incidents similar to the one in Aurora last year in which a vehicle driven by an illegal immigrant was involved in an accident that killed three people.

“We concluded that the implementation of (the 2006 law) alone is unlikely to either prevent fatal traffic accidents allegedly caused by illegal immigrants or increase the number of detained or removed illegal immigrants,” auditors wrote.

The problem is that local police agencies do not have the resources to enforce immigration laws, and illegal immigration is the purview of the federal government in any case, auditors wrote. Meanwhile, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency frequently does not pick up suspected illegal immigrants who have been arrested for only minor crimes, the report said.

Read more at the Denver Post

This 2006 photo shows Kenny Rankin in Los Angeles. Rankin has died of complications related to lung cancer, his record company announced Monday June 8, 2009. He was 69. Photo by (AP Photo/DL Media, Suzanne Allison)

Suzanne Allison