Editor’s note: This story and subhead have been updated to correct that a ban on face masks in one of the proposed bills only applies to state and local law enforcement officers.

Democratic state lawmakers say they will push forward a trio of bills this legislative session aimed at further limiting how federal immigration officers operate in Colorado. 

The effort comes in the wake of the high-profile killings in Minneapolis of Renee Good and Alex Pretti at the hands of federal immigration agents, which has spurred protests in Colorado in communities large and small, including mountain towns. 

Lawmakers, who had planned to introduce the three bills even before Good and Pretti’s deaths, spoke during a news conference outside the Capitol on Monday alongside immigrant rights advocates about the need to hold federal officers accountable.

Lawmakers and advocates also called to “abolish” Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the federal agency at the center of carrying out President Donald Trump’s hardline immigration agenda. 

“We as legislators are joining you with solutions that can help protect Coloradans, strengthen our Constitutional rights and hold firm against the unlawful attacks by an unlawful agency called ICE,” said Rep. Lorena Garcia, D-Adams County. 

Protecting personal information

One measure, backed by Rep. Elizabeth Velasco, D-Glenwood Springs, would build on legislation passed last year that limits cooperation and information sharing between state and local officials and ICE. 

Her forthcoming bill, which could be introduced sometime this month, would force the state to publicly report all subpoenas issued by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, and requires state officials to notify individuals when their information has been shared with federal agents. 

“We want transparency. We want to make sure that people know that there is a request for their information,” Velasco said during Monday’s news conference. She plans to sponsor the bill alongside Garcia and Sens. Iman Joden and Mike Weissman, who both represent parts of Aurora. 

Last year, Democrats passed Senate Bill 276, which bans local and state officials from sharing data with ICE unless it’s for a criminal case where a valid warrant has been issued. Velasco said her upcoming measure is aimed at filling gaps in SB 276 and was inspired, in part, by incidents over the summer where public officials appeared to skirt state law. 

Those incidents included a deputy sheriff in Mesa County who allegedly shared information with federal immigration officials in June that led to the arrest of a Utah college student who had an expired visa. In July, Gov. Jared Polis came under fire from the then-director of the state’s labor department, whom Polis asked to fulfill a federal subpoena that asked for information on 35 adult sponsors who were housing unaccompanied immigrant children. 

The Colorado Attorney General’s Office filed a lawsuit against the Mesa County deputy, which was later dropped after the official resigned. Scott Moss, the state’s former labor director, sued Polis over the incident involving immigrant sponsors. While a state judge has largely sided with Moss in the ongoing case, he has left the door open to Polis finding other ways to compel the labor agency to hand over information. 

Velasco’s proposed bill would extend liability for violating the state’s data-sharing law to include not just employees of state agencies, but also employers. Other provisions of the bill include: 

• Requiring new immigration detention centers in Colorado to pay for and conduct an environmental assessment of their facility before it can open
• Requiring the state to conduct regular environmental and health inspections at current and existing facilities, paid for by the facility 
• Requiring detention centers to provide the state with more information on detainees as part of a yearly report 
• Blocking municipal airports, buses or trains from transporting detained people
• Protecting detainees from deportation while in transit to and from a health care facility, school, child care center, court building or church

While immigration operations in large cities have dominated the news, Velasco said small, mountain communities like hers — which have large immigrant populations — have also been affected. 

She referenced a man who was detained by federal agents in Dillon in September and transferred to a detention facility in Mississippi, where he later died in a hospital in December. The man’s family and immigrant advocates are calling for more information from federal officials on his death. 

Advocates also reported federal immigration agents leaving behind ace of spades playing cards in the cars of people who were detained near Vail on Jan. 21. The cards have a history of being used as a racist symbol by white supremacist groups and the incident is currently under investigation by ICE. 

Banning face coverings and providing a path to sue federal agents 

Another forthcoming bill would ban state and local law enforcement officers from wearing masks and require that they show identifying information on their outermost layer of clothing. 

The bill would also require state law enforcement officers to receive training on Colorado immigration law and require law enforcement to apprehend anyone who breaks the law, including federal officials. 

“That is current law, but in these unprecedented times, where those breaking the law are federal officials, we find it important to emphasize our law enforcement responsibility and jurisdiction to uphold our laws,” said Rep. Yara Zokaie, D-Fort Collins, who plans to sponsor the bill alongside Rep. Meg Froelich, D-Englewood, as well as Jodeh and Weissman.

Zokaie’s bill would also prohibit former ICE officers from serving as certified law enforcement officers in Colorado.

A third bill — which has already been introduced — would provide a path for people hurt by federal immigration agents to sue them in state civil court. 

“Where there are rights, there have to be remedies when those rights are violated,” said Weissman, who is sponsoring the measure, Senate Bill 5, alongside Zokaie and Sen. Julie Gonzales, D-Denver, and Rep. Javier Mabrey, D-Denver. 

State Republican lawmakers are likely to oppose all three bills, just as they uniformly opposed Democrats’ data-sharing measure last year. All 12 Senate Republicans on Monday also voted against a resolution brought by Democrats that criticized federal immigration agents’ enforcement tactics. 

Senate Minority Leader Cleave Simpson, R-Alamosa, said while there’s “much of the resolution that I’m in agreement with,” there are “certain aspects of it I can’t support.” 

Simpson said he shares similar concerns as Democrats over how some enforcement operations have been carried out, including in his district. But he said the resolution failed to acknowledge a “long history of really poor federal immigration policy that has not helped us get to a much better spot.”

He referenced the surge in immigrants entering the U.S. illegally in recent years that has resulted in more deportations, and added, “I don’t think you can just ignore the fact that embedded in those immigrant populations are folks that don’t have our community’s best interest in mind.” 

Simpson said that issue exists both inside and outside immigrant communities.