Report: ICE Plans To Target Denver, Other ‘Sanctuary Cities’ For Immigration Enforcement

From the Colorado Newsline:

By Faith Miller

October 1, 2020

Citing anonymous officials, the Washington Post reported Sept. 29 that Immigration and Customs Enforcement was planning an “immigration enforcement blitz” in several so-called “sanctuary cities” — including Denver — that refuse to cooperate with federal immigration officials.

The operation could begin in California as soon as this week, the Post reported, and then expand to other cities including Denver and Philadelphia.

Two officials told the Post that Chad Wolf, acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, “probably will travel to at least one of the jurisdictions where the operation will take place” to underline President Donald Trump’s campaign theme that Democratic city leaders “have failed to protect residents from dangerous criminals,” the Post reported.

An ICE spokesperson told Colorado Newsline via email that the agency does not comment “on any law enforcement sensitive issues that may adversely impact our officers and the public.”

“However, every day as part of routine operations, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) targets and arrests criminal aliens and other individuals who have violated our nation’s immigration laws,” the spokesperson said. “Generally speaking, as ICE has noted for years, in jurisdictions where cooperation does not exist and ICE is not allowed to assume custody of aliens from jails, ICE is forced to arrest at-large criminal aliens out in the communities instead of under the safe confines of a jail.”

In 2017, Denver City Council passed an ordinance prohibiting city and county employees from assisting in the enforcement of federal immigration laws or requesting a person’s immigration status. The ordinance also bars ICE agents from using any city or county property to enforce immigration laws.

The same year, Denver Mayor Michael Hancock signed an executive order creating a legal defense fund for people threatened with deportation, who aren’t automatically provided with free legal representation like criminal defendants.

ICE has pushed back against Denver’s ordinance, including through successful court subpoenas of information on people who’d been jailed.

“We have heard rumors of these threats before and coming so close to an election, it is disturbing,” Hancock’s spokesperson, Theresa Marchetta, said in an emailed statement when asked for comment on the Washington Post’s report. “Denver’s ordinance is framed so it does not violate federal law or protect criminals.”

Most Colorado counties do not cooperate with ICE agents by arresting or detaining people for violating immigration laws. Through so-called ICE detainers, counties hold in jail people suspected of being undocumented up to 48 hours longer than they would have otherwise been jailed, until ICE can assume custody of the person.

Colorado House Bill 19-1124, signed into law by Gov. Jared Polis last year, prohibited ICE detainers. The bill doesn’t go as far as preventing counties from entering 287(g) agreements with the federal agency, a provision Polis opposed.

Teller County is the sole Colorado county that’s part of ICE’s 287(g) Program, which allows deputies to perform immigration enforcement activities.

HB-1124 — sponsored by state Reps. Adrienne Benavidez, D-Commerce City, and Susan Lontine, D-Denver — also prohibits a probation officer or probation department employee from providing an individual’s personal information to federal immigration authorities, and requires law enforcement officers coordinating interviews between ICE agents and people in their custody to advise those people of their constitutional rights.

ICE has lambasted the law as a “sanctuary law” and says it puts public safety at risk.

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