Colorado bill preventing ICE agents from joining state or local police stirs ‘direct conflict’ with feds, Republican warns

The White House has joined with the top Republican in the Colorado House of Representatives in condemning bills seeking to prevent any Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent from joining state and local police, and to make ICE agents liable for alleged violations of constitutional rights.

“ICE officers are facing a 1300% increase in assaults because of dangerous, untrue smears by elected Democrats,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told The Daily Signal in a statement Monday. “Recently, an officer had his finger bitten off by a radical left-wing rioter.”

“ICE officers act heroically to enforce the law and protect American communities—local officials should work with them, not against them,” Jackson added. “Anyone doing otherwise is simply doing the bidding of criminal illegal aliens.”

Jarvis Caldwell, the Republican minority leader in the Colorado House, told The Daily Signal that Democrats are “advancing bills that put Colorado in direct conflict with federal law enforcement and expose our state to serious legal and financial consequences.”

Two Colorado Bills

Caldwell condemned HB26-1275, which forbids law enforcement officers from concealing their identities and directly targets agents with ICE and Customs and Border Protection.

The bill states that the Peace Officer Standards and Training Board “shall deny certification to a person who has previously been employed or who is currently employed by the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency or United States Customs and Border Protection agency.” This would prevent former ICE and CBP officers from joining state and local police forces in the Centennial State.

Caldwell warned that the bill “strips verification from qualified officers simply for prior federal service and invites confrontation between state and federal authorities.”

Another bill, SB26-005, which passed the Colorado Senate last week, would allow people to sue federal immigration agents in Colorado for allegedly violating rights secured by the U.S. Constitution.

The legislation “opens the door to costly lawsuits by eliminating longstanding immunities and creating broad new liability tied to immigration enforcement,” Caldwell said.

“These proposals are extreme, legally questionable , and will ultimately burden taxpayers instead of making our communities safer.”

The Daily Signal reached out to the House and Senate sponsors of both bills. Neither responded by publication time.

‘Your Time Will Come’

Rep. Yara Zokaie, a Democrat who sponsored both bills, has repeatedly warned ICE agents that they will face penalties for what she calls “atrocities.”

“My message to individual ICE agents: You may have skated by without accountability while we have a lunatic in the White House, but your day will come … and ‘I was just following orders’ will not be a viable excuse,” she declared in January.

“Every day that you enforce cruelty in our state is another day we will use to judge you, and all of us will make sure you are held accountable,” she added.

Zokaie repeated the message last month, saying, “‘I was just following orders’ is no excuse for committing atrocities.” She delivered the speech in front of a sign reading, “legalizacíon para todos,” which translates to “legalization for all.”

The Daily Signal reached out to Zokaie for comment, but did not hear back by publication time.

Denver Executive Order

Last week, Denver Mayor Mike Johnston signed an executive order barring ICE from using city-owned or city-controlled property for civil immigration enforcement. The order frames immigration enforcement as a violent threat and takes the side of “peaceful protestors.”

The order states that, “in the event of civil immigration enforcement operations,” Denver “safety agents”—including police, fire, sheriff departments, and private security firms—”shall use their established de-escalation protocols to try to protect peaceful protestors and ensure public health, welfare, safety, and the preservation of First Amendment rights.”

It goes on to state that safety agencies “shall instruct their personnel that they must protect and aid people in lifethreatening situations, regardless of the law enforcement agency perpetrating the harm.”

The Daily Signal reached out to Mayor Johnston for comment. He did not respond by publication time.

DHS Response

“What these Colorado sanctuary politicians are trying to do is unlawful, and they know it,” Department of Homeland Security Deputy Secretary Lauren Bis told The Daily Signal. “Federal officials acting in the course of their duties are immune from liability under state law.”

“Politicians are laying blame at the feet of law enforcement instead of looking in the mirror at how they have fueled the hatred and violent attacks we are seeing against federal law enforcement officers,” she added.

Responding directly to Johnston’s order, Bis said, “Attempting to ban federal law enforcement from city property is legally illiterate. Enforcing federal immigration laws is a clear federal responsibility under Article I, Article II and the Supremacy Clause.”

“While Mayor Johnston continues to release pedophiles, rapists, gang members, and murderers onto their streets, our brave law enforcement will continue to risk their lives to arrest these heinous criminals and make Denver safe again,” she concluded.

Democratic Rhetoric on ICE

Democrats have compared ICE to the Gestapo, Adolf Hitler’s secret police.

The opposition ratcheted up a notch after the Department of Homeland Security ordered a surge of immigration enforcement agents to Minneapolis. Anti-ICE agitators organized to monitor immigration enforcement, with some training to directly interfere with ICE operations.

In this context of heightened tensions, two activists died at the hands of ICE agents: Renee Good and Alex Pretti. Border Czar Tom Homan took charge of the efforts in Minneapolis, and drew down federal forces.

In the midst of the surge, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz suggested he would deploy National Guard troops against ICE and other federal immigration agents.

[Editor’s note: This story originally was published by The Daily Signal.]