May 4 (UPI) — The Colorado House has passed a measure aimed at protecting the rights of immigrants in the state, despite efforts by the Trump administration to crack down on illegal immigration.
The House debated Senate Bill 276 for nearly four hours before approving it 42-21 along party lines.
The measure prohibits local and state law enforcement officers from allowing federal immigration agents to enter parts of immigrant detention centers that are off limits to the public, and would prohibit jails from releasing someone on a personal recognizance bond as part of an immigrant enforcement operation unless they are investigating a federal crime.
The bill also prohibits another state’s National Guard from entering the state as part of any enforcement action without permission from Colorado’s governor, and prevents federal immigration agents from going into schools, health care and child care facilities, churches, libraries and jails without warrants.
Those institutions would also be prohibited from releasing information about a person’s immigration status.
“In this country, everyone is constitutionally guaranteed rights, no matter who the president is,” Elizabeth Velasco, D-Glenwood Springs, said. Velasco immigrated to the United States from Mexico. “But as a nation and a state, we are facing an unsettling and uncertain future. Due process is being violated at the highest levels of government. “Right now, our neighbors are afraid while going about the basic necessities of life like taking their children to school, going to the doctor, or cooperating with authorities.”
Critics of the measure, including Rep. Jarvis Caldwell, R-Colorado Springs, said it would mean a loss of federal money for Colorado, and would be the “final nail in the coffin” for federal money for Space Command, which the Trump administration has considered moving from Colorado Springs to Huntsville, Alabama.
“We’re gonna lose money on this because it is the federal government’s role to enforce immigration law and what we are trying to do is we are trying to roadblock that for them,” he said.
Caldwell introduced an amendment to the bill that would repeal the law if Washington does, indeed, cut federal funding to the state as a result of the immigration measure. The amendment was defeated.
The bill passed the Senate late last month. The Justice Department recently filed suit against Colorado naming Gov. Jared Polis for the its “sanctuary laws.”
