Rep. Naquetta Ricks, an Aurora Democrat, is the only immigrant in the legislature this year and sponsored several of the bills, including the immigrant legal defense fund.
“We are very prevalent,” Ricks said. “We are a part of the fabric of Colorado. We are what makes Colorado work. … We’re a very significant part that needs to be recognized and be included in the policies in the state.”
Yes, America is one of the greatest countries in the world, but people come because they are running from trauma, political unrest, they come because they’re running from famine and war. … People are here because they’re seeking a better life. They’re seeking a place where they can live and they can thrive, and I think that immigrants contribute so much to the United States. … We are part of this fabric of this country.
Along with Rep. Mary Bradfield and Sen. Jeff Bridges, Ricks was a prime sponsor of a bill that creates a voluntary pilot program that renters can participate in to report their rent payment to consumer reporting agencies in order to build their credit history.
The bill is designed to boost home ownership rates among low-income Coloradans, who are less likely to have a credit history, Ricks said. Bad credit makes it more difficult to access loans for things like mortgage payments, and people with poor credit pay much higher rates than those with better credit.
A bill making its way through the Colorado House aims to protect the rights of car owners who’ve been towed. A task force within Colorado’s Public Utilities Commission reviews hundreds of consumer complaints against towing companies every year. A bill sponsored by Representative Naquetta Ricks would change who reviews these complaints.
Rep. Naquetta Ricks, an Aurora Democrat, acknowledged the long road ahead toward achieving racial justice.
"Today, we are far from justice, but we are one step closer to reckoning with white supremacy in this country," Ricks, the first Black immigrant to serve in the Colorado General Assembly, said on Twitter. "I stand in solidarity with my fellow members of the Black Caucus in our commitment to justice for all black lives."
Aurora Democratic Rep. Naquetta Ricks said that soon after the mass shooting in Boulder last month, she rode in an elevator with GOP Rep. Richard Holtorf, the Republican from Akron who is frequently chastised on House floor for violating chamber rules of decorum.
“He starts talking about Black-on-Black crime. I’m like, ‘Where are you going with this?’ But they kind of try to bait you like that,” Ricks said, adding that she thinks he intentionally spoke this way because he was in the presence of a Black colleague.
My mother was my first role model.
She was a force to be reckoned with: compassionate, industrious, fearless, and resourceful. When my mother brought my sister and I to the U.S. after we ran from a bloody military coup in Liberia, she emphasized the value of education and pushed us to learn as much as we could.
As a 13-year-old girl, I fled a civil war in my native country, Liberia. I watched as armed individuals held my mother at gunpoint, attempting to find her fiancé, who, at the time, was a high-ranking government official. Despite everything, my family and I were able to flee Liberia and settle in Aurora.
A pop-up coronavirus vaccine clinic aimed to get Aurora’s immigrant community immunized. By now you may have heard that Black, Hispanic and indigenous communities have been hit hard by the pandemic. Many people of color are hesitant to get vaccinated, but one group within those communities is especially struggling.
“We have a lot of people who live in intergenerational households, and so we’ve had deaths in the community,” said State Rep. Naquetta Ricks.
Thank you House District 40.
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