Tea Party Republican and anti-immigrant zealot Ken Buck announced he will be seeking the Colorado Senate seat for the 2014 election, challenging Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.). The former prosecutor made a run for the seat in 2010, but was narrowly defeated by Sen. Michael Bennett (D-Colo.).
The Weld County, CO District Attorney, Buck made national headlines in 2006 for organizing what was, at the time, the largest workplace raid in US history. ICE officials stormed the JBS Swift Greely Beef Plant in the early hours of the morning on December 16, “arresting 265 Hispanic workers and deporting dozens in a coordinated seven-city raid known as Operation Wagon Train, a key front in the Bush Administration’s ‘war against illegal immigration.’”
Despite a denouncement of Operation Wagon Train from Republican Mayor Tom Selders, Buck conducted another raid in Greeley two years later at Amalia’s Translation and Tax Services —a tax office for Hispanic immigrants in the city. Officials seized “thousands of confidential tax returns […] arresting dozens of alleged illegal immigrants as part of Operation Numbers Game.” After the ACLU brought forth a lawsuit against Buck, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled his search unconstitutional.
This year Colorado passed key pro-immigrant legislation – instate tuition, driver’s licenses for undocumented immigrants, and the repeal of SB 90 – showing that the state values its undocumented residents. As Colorado hopefully continues on this progressive and inclusive path, voters must remember in November there is no room for the unjust, unethical, and far right policies like those of Ken Buck.
In light of Buck’s most recent bid for Senate, ThinkProgress has put together a list of “seven things to everyone should know about Buck.”