Colorado Senate advances immigrant protection bill aimed at limiting enforcement actions in state

The Colorado Senate advanced a bill Monday to expand protections for immigrants and limit where federal officials can enforce immigration law.

If Senate Bill 276 becomes law, it would prohibit federal immigration enforcement from entering non-public parts of detention facilities without a warrant; limit access to public child care centers, schools, and health care facilities; expand the prohibition on the disclosure of personal identifying information or immigration status; and prohibit the delay of a defendents release from custody because of an immigration detainer.

It would also prohibit other states from sending their National Guard units or other military units into Colorado without the governor’s approval or federal orders.

“We can’t control what the federal government does or does not do,” Sen. Julie Gonzales, a Denver Democrat and sponsor of the bill, said. “We can ensure that the constitution protects us all and we as a state have the right to not be commandeered by the federal government.”

She warned of immigrant communities and mixed-status families not wanting to call law enforcement out of fear of deportation, and ongoing lawsuits against the federal government over its deportations, including in Colorado. On Monday, a federal judge in Denver held a hearing about the ongoing restraining order preventing the Trump administration from deporting two Venezuelan men under a 1798 law.

The administration has invoked the law, the Alien Enemies Act, to deport immigrants to a mega prison in El Salvador, regardless of their country of origin. The U.S. Supreme Court over the weekend also temporarily paused deportations of immigrants in northern Texas.

The bill passed on a near-party line vote, with Sen. Kyle Mullica, of Thornton, the only Democrat to say nay. He said he needed more time to process a series of amendments introduced ahead of the vote.

A coalition of immigrant rights advocates, dressed in white, cheered from the Senate gallery when it passed the chamber.

Sen. Paul Lundeen, a Monument Republican and head of the Senate GOP, opened his remarks opposing the bill by quoting from “The New Colossus,” the poem tied to the Statue of Liberty, and its famous lines ”Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” But, the bill would potentially “undermine” federal law enforcement, he said.

“We are a nation of immigrants,” Lundeen said. “And coupled with that, inextricably so — and why we’re tussling right now — we’re a nation of laws as well. … This particular law goes too far. Greater precision is needed still.”

The bill still needs a vote in the House before it goes to Gov. Jared Polis. 

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