GREELEY — Weld County District Attorney Ken Buck last month announced the launch of the “Preventing and Reporting Crimes Against Immigrants” program.
    The campaign is designed to help educate Weld County’s diverse immigrant community that it’s important to report all crimes to local law-enforcement. Many immigrants are reluctant to report crime due to immigration status, cultural differences or fear of retaliation from family members or authorities.
    “We have a responsibility to arm people in our community with the knowledge they need to protect themselves from crime, and to show people that they have nothing to fear by reporting crime to local law-enforcement,” Buck said.
    Weld County is home to a large population of immigrants from countries across the globe, including: Burma, Djibouti, Mexico, Somalia, South Sudan and Uganda.
    According to the U.S. Census Bureau, about 9.5 percent of Weld County’s 252,825 residents were born in a foreign country. Nearly 19 percent of Weld County residents speak a language other than English at home.
    The new community program will also focus on educating the community about the most common types of crimes that are often targeted at immigrants.
    “Unfortunately, criminals often take advantage of immigrants by claiming to be legal experts, charging fees for documents that are available for free or by illegally withholding wages from workers,” Buck said. “With the support of law-enforcement officials such as Weld County Sheriff John Cooke and the Weld County Chiefs of Police
Association, we can remove these threats from our community.”
    The Preventing and Reporting Crimes Against Immigrants campaign will be added to the stable of other ongoing projects that bring prosecutors from the 19th Judicial District into the community.