On March 12 at the Grand County Board of County Commissioners meeting, the commissioners unanimously passed a resolution that declared Grand County as a non-sanctuary county and set “priorities and expectations in response to immigration influx.” Resource and infrastructure limitations were cited as the main reasoning for the policy.

The resolution also writes that the county will “not open shelters nor provide services, other than emergency services, to uninvited asylum-seeking individuals and/or illegal immigrants that may arrive in unincorporated Grand County.”

The resolution references the situation in Denver, which received nearly 36,000 new immigrants over the past year, most of whom were transported from Texas after reaching the United States.

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The Garfield Board of County Commissioners passed a similar resolution March 4 that was met with backlash from community members. The town of Carbondale in Garfield County has been coping with a influx of immigration.

Grand County’s resolution includes facts on the immigration influx on the national level as well as in Denver.

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Financial constraints are another concern in the resolution and states that “the City of Denver faces an accelerated budget shortfall and agency budget cuts to fund asylum-seeking migrant services.” The city announced budget cuts earlier in the year that affected recreation center hours and other services for residents.

The resolution also claims that the presence of undocumented people causes an increase in crime and disease.

It warns that “those who enter the country illegally can pose a significant public health and safety risk to a community when there is an increase in crime, communicable disease, and accelerating demand and unsustainability on public infrastructure such as services, public safety, schools and the justice system.”

A study by the CATO Institute, a libertarian think tank, looked into illegal immigration and crime in Texas and concluded that the undocumented immigrant conviction rate for all violent crime is about 38% below that of native-born Americans and the documented immigrant conviction rate is about 65% below. Similar studies have seen similar results.

The resolution clarifies that Grand County supports legal immigration and that it “recognizes the plight of those seeking refuge and asylum from oppressive governments in other parts of the world.”

The Grand County Sheriff’s Department established a policy in 2014 stating that the Grand County Jail will not be used to hold detainees of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement who have not been criminally charged. Other county sheriff’s offices enacted similar policies in 2014 including Garfield, Pitkin, Jefferson, Routt and more.

The resolution states that this policy has been misinterpreted.

“There is a misconception out there that we are a sanctuary county,” commissioner Merrit Linke said during the meeting.

A response from the county states that “commissioners and the county manager received numerous calls from citizens stating that a ticker on Fox News listed Grand County as a sanctuary county in Colorado.”

“This is just a declaration, in case, perhaps officials in Denver or other areas were thinking that this might be a place where people can be sent,” commissioner Richard Cimino said.

The statement from the county reiterates housing and social service constraints in Grand County. It wrote that, “commissioners felt it would be a tremendous disservice to these individuals and families if they were to arrive in Grand County under the belief that housing and services would be available to them.”