The Denver Mayor’s Workplace mentioned that the town “is not going to be bullied or blackmailed.”
In one more escalation of its anti-immigrant agenda, the Trump administration’s Division of Justice (DOJ) filed a lawsuit on Friday in opposition to Colorado and the town of Denver for allegedly obstructing federal immigration enforcement. The go well with objects to sanctuary policies — native initiatives to guard immigrant communities from federal deportation efforts — and argues that such insurance policies encroach on federal authority.
This transfer follows Donald Trump’s current executive order instructing the DOJ to penalize sanctuary cities, together with threatening to withhold federal funding. “These government orders are simply the newest escalation within the Trump administration’s shakedown of cities, states, and elected officers that refuse to supply up native sources for the administration’s mass deportation and detention agenda,” Naureen Shah, director of presidency affairs for the ACLU’s Equality Division, said in a statement.
Within the criticism difficult Colorado and Denver sanctuary insurance policies, the DOJ argues that the federal authorities has “preemptive authority to manage immigration issues,” and claims that the insurance policies had been crafted “by intent and design” to impede federal immigration enforcement efforts.
The DOJ lawsuit particularly targets a number of Colorado state legal guidelines and Denver municipal ordinances that the agency says “intervene with and discriminate in opposition to the Federal Authorities’s enforcement of federal immigration legislation.” Amongst these are HB19-1124, a 2019 legislation prohibiting state and native legislation enforcement from arresting or detaining folks primarily based solely on federal immigration detainer requests; SB21-131, which bars state workers from sharing private figuring out info with federal immigration companies; and HB23-1100, a 2023 legislation that stops native jails from contracting with federal immigration authorities to detain immigrants. Equally, Denver’s city policies additionally limit cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), barring native officers from aiding ICE with no courtroom order and denying ICE entry to safe jail amenities.
“Everyone seems to be entitled to constitutional safety,” Nicole Cervera Loy with the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition, told local network Denver7. “And so, I’d be very involved to see these legal guidelines being taken away.”
The lawsuit additionally cites a debunked far right narrative claiming the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua had taken over an condominium advanced in Aurora — an unfounded allegation promoted by Trump final yr, regardless of being publicly refuted by Aurora’s police chief. In January, Trump signed an executive order designating Tren de Aragua as a terrorist group and licensed the removal of hundreds of people — many with out due course of or proof of gang ties — to a U.S.-funded concentration camp in El Salvador.
Responding to the DOJ lawsuit, the Denver Mayor’s Workplace declared that the town “is not going to be bullied or blackmailed, least of all by an administration that has little regard for the legislation and even much less for the reality.” The Colorado Lawyer Common’s Workplace additionally affirmed that its workplace “is dedicated to defending Colorado legislation and has accomplished so efficiently prior to now on this space. We stand prepared to take action once more.”
This DOJ lawsuit comes as lawmakers in Colorado actively search to spice up protections for immigrant communities. On Saturday, the Colorado Home handed Senate Bill 25-276, which prohibits native officers from sharing private immigration information with ICE and restricts ICE entry to public areas like colleges, hospitals, and libraries with no warrant. Officers who intentionally violate the information sharing provision of the invoice may very well be fined $50,000, which might be utilized by Colorado’s immigration legal defense fund.
“One of many the explanation why I admire this invoice a lot is that it’s certainly one of few that’s actually taking critically the disaster that the federal administration poses for immigrants specifically and for marginalized folks usually,” mentioned Democratic state Rep. Yara Zokaie.
The invoice now heads to the desk of Democratic Gov. Jared Polis, whose file on immigration rights has usually been criticized as inadequate.
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