The state legislature passed a bill Thursday that allows Colorado residents to sue federal immigration officers in state court over alleged constitutional rights violations.
Supporters say the measure, Senate Bill 26-005, would fill a gap in the law that largely does not include a pathway for challenging conduct by federal officials, including immigration authorities like U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement or ICE.
The bill still needs to be signed by Gov. Jared Polis before it becomes law.
This story was produced as part of the Colorado Capitol News Alliance. It first appeared at kunc.org.
“We’re creating a circumstance where, if ICE is violating your constitutional rights by unlawfully searching you, seizing you, by conducting their jobs in a way where it looks more like police brutality than actual policing, that you have a cause of action to stand up for yourself in court,” bill sponsor state Rep. Javier Mabrey, D-Denver, said.
Lawsuits brought against immigration agents under the measure would have to be filed within two years of the alleged constitutional violation. The measure would take effect immediately, pending the governor’s signature.
Mabrey said he hopes the law will serve as a deterrent for potential bad actors, as well as an important recourse for victims.
“I hope that people who are here to enforce immigration law, whether they work for ICE or not, understand that they do not have immunity just by saying they’re doing their jobs,” Mabrey said.
Senate Bill 26-005 is in response to the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. It was already in the works before Minneapolis residents Alex Pretti and Renee Good were killed in January at the hands of immigration officers, but took on new urgency after their deaths.
Colorado has not seen the scale of operations seen in Minneapolis or other cities like Los Angeles, New York and Chicago. Immigration arrests here, however, have surged since President Donald Trump took office.
Both the Colorado House and Senate passed the bill along party lines. Polis has not indicated whether he plans to sign the bill.
The legislature passed the measure days after a similar bill with a wider scope was rejected in its first hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday. While Senate Bill 26-005 is focused solely on violations that happen during immigration enforcement operations, the measure that died, Senate Bill 26-176, would have allowed Colorado residents to sue a range of federal officials over civil rights violations.
But the bill was written to include state and local officials as well as federal ones. In response, local governments, law enforcement, district attorneys and Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, who is also running for governor, opposed the bill, saying it would open up state and local officials to a rash of lawsuits.
“On the day this law would go into effect, it would impose substantial insurance costs, legal fees and liability risks on all Colorado state and local public officials,” Denver District Attorney John Walsh said.
Other legal experts disagreed with Walsh and said the bill would not change state and local officials’ immunity or liability protections.
Supporters of the wider-scoped Senate Bill 26-176 also said the bill would be able to withstand more legal challenges than Senate Bill 26-005, in large part because it did not single out federal officials.
Similar laws in other states have already faced legal scrutiny. A law in Illinois that allows residents to sue immigration agents who arrest them in or near courthouses was challenged in court last year. Then, last month, a California law was blocked that prohibited immigration agents from wearing masks and required them to display identification. The courts said that law violated the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution by regulating federal agents using state law.
But two Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee ultimately sided with the committee’s Republicans to kill Senate Bill 26-176, leaving lawmakers to pass the narrower Senate Bill 26-005 a few days later.
Lawmakers are still considering a third bill, House Bill 26-1276, that would regulate how federal immigration authorities operate in Colorado. One part of the measure would require subpoenas from immigration authorities to be made public. Others would require regular inspections of detention centers and prohibit immigration agents from entering non-public areas of jails.
That bill is awaiting debate in the Senate.
This story was produced by the Capitol News Alliance, a collaboration between KUNC News, Colorado Public Radio, Rocky Mountain PBS, and The Colorado Sun, with support from news outlets throughout the state. Startup funding for the Alliance was provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
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