WASHINGTON, DC – The Justice Department has been in somewhat of a back-and-forth with Colorado and the city of Denver, with the Department of Justice reportedly advising the city and state to cease their “sanctuary policies,” with the state claiming they have no such sanctuary status and officials in Denver simply ignoring the requests.
In a series of correspondence between the state of Colorado and the Justice Department, a feud of sorts is in the midst as to whether the state harbors what’s known as sanctuary policies, insofar as whether the state overtly or tacitly hinders enforcement mechanisms of federal immigration law.
On August 13th, Attorney General Pam Bondi sent a letter to Colorado Governor Jared Polis, in tandem with similar letters to other state governors and city leaders across the country, formally requesting the state cease “sanctuary policies and practices.”
“You are hereby notified that your jurisdiction has been identified as one that engages in sanctuary policies and practices that thwart federal immigration enforcement to the detriment of the interests of the United States,” AG Bondi’s letter noted, adding that the Justice Department is currently exploring means of prosecuting over such policies deemed to be in conflict with existing federal law.
In Governor Polis’ response to AG Bondi on August 19th, he wrote, “Colorado is not a sanctuary state. Colorado fully cooperates with federal authorities in identifying, apprehending, and prosecuting criminals - regardless of immigration status. Recently, I signed a law that specifically acknowledges the ability to share information with the federal government to assist in criminal investigations or proceedings.”
The law that Governor Polis seems to be referencing is SB25-276, dubbed the “Protect Civil Rights Immigration Status” act, which does allow state and local authorities to collaborate with the federal government in various criminal investigations – but also penalizes peace officers and state employees passing over information of suspected illegal immigrants and gives immigrants, both legal and illegal, the ability to vacate guilty pleas of class 1 and 2 misdemeanors if they claim they didn’t know it could get them deported.
It was under the aforementioned Colorado state law that kicked off a lawsuit this past July against a Mesa County Sheriff's deputy, with none other than Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser leading the lawsuit against the deputy over the individual informing ICE that he’d encountered an illegal alien during a traffic stop on June 5th.
By all measures, the Justice Department’s framing of Colorado as a sanctuary state seems to be a reasonable characterization.
Meanwhile, the city of Denver isn’t arguing with the Justice Department over semantics, with Mayor Mike Johnston and his city attorney clarifying they have no intention of changing any of their current practices.
In a video shared on social media, Mayor Johnston justified Denver’s sanctuary practices by portraying them as being a byproduct of investigative indifference, saying, “We don't ask someone's status, because it's not relevant, if you were doing 65 in a 45. When they allege that we harbor folks from the federal government that have committed crimes – completely false. If you've committed a violent crime in Denver, we're pursuing you, we're arresting you, we're charging you. We're working with the federal government to do that, if that's what's required.”
Mayor Johnston’s video shared online failed to acknowledge that detention facilities in Denver routinely fail to honor ICE detainers, which extends beyond a simple symptom of investigative indifference and ventures into the territory of a deliberate act of ignorance.
In a series of correspondence between the state of Colorado and the Justice Department, a feud of sorts is in the midst as to whether the state harbors what’s known as sanctuary policies, insofar as whether the state overtly or tacitly hinders enforcement mechanisms of federal immigration law.
On August 13th, Attorney General Pam Bondi sent a letter to Colorado Governor Jared Polis, in tandem with similar letters to other state governors and city leaders across the country, formally requesting the state cease “sanctuary policies and practices.”
“You are hereby notified that your jurisdiction has been identified as one that engages in sanctuary policies and practices that thwart federal immigration enforcement to the detriment of the interests of the United States,” AG Bondi’s letter noted, adding that the Justice Department is currently exploring means of prosecuting over such policies deemed to be in conflict with existing federal law.
In Governor Polis’ response to AG Bondi on August 19th, he wrote, “Colorado is not a sanctuary state. Colorado fully cooperates with federal authorities in identifying, apprehending, and prosecuting criminals - regardless of immigration status. Recently, I signed a law that specifically acknowledges the ability to share information with the federal government to assist in criminal investigations or proceedings.”
The law that Governor Polis seems to be referencing is SB25-276, dubbed the “Protect Civil Rights Immigration Status” act, which does allow state and local authorities to collaborate with the federal government in various criminal investigations – but also penalizes peace officers and state employees passing over information of suspected illegal immigrants and gives immigrants, both legal and illegal, the ability to vacate guilty pleas of class 1 and 2 misdemeanors if they claim they didn’t know it could get them deported.
It was under the aforementioned Colorado state law that kicked off a lawsuit this past July against a Mesa County Sheriff's deputy, with none other than Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser leading the lawsuit against the deputy over the individual informing ICE that he’d encountered an illegal alien during a traffic stop on June 5th.
By all measures, the Justice Department’s framing of Colorado as a sanctuary state seems to be a reasonable characterization.
Meanwhile, the city of Denver isn’t arguing with the Justice Department over semantics, with Mayor Mike Johnston and his city attorney clarifying they have no intention of changing any of their current practices.
In a video shared on social media, Mayor Johnston justified Denver’s sanctuary practices by portraying them as being a byproduct of investigative indifference, saying, “We don't ask someone's status, because it's not relevant, if you were doing 65 in a 45. When they allege that we harbor folks from the federal government that have committed crimes – completely false. If you've committed a violent crime in Denver, we're pursuing you, we're arresting you, we're charging you. We're working with the federal government to do that, if that's what's required.”
Mayor Johnston’s video shared online failed to acknowledge that detention facilities in Denver routinely fail to honor ICE detainers, which extends beyond a simple symptom of investigative indifference and ventures into the territory of a deliberate act of ignorance.
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Comments
2025-08-29T21:45-0400 | Comment by: James
Time to go get this creep!