U.S. House investigates Colorado rule requiring lawyers to block immigration enforcement
The House Judiciary Committee is investigating why Colorado lawyers who want to file a case online must abide by the state’s sanctuary law or face perjury charges.
In a letter on Monday, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif., chairman of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement, said they are looking at Colorado’s sanctuary policy.
Last year, Colorado’s Democratic Gov. Jared Polis signed the Protect Civil Rights Immigration Status Act into law, which attempts to shield illegal immigrants by extending existing prohibitions on information sharing to state officials and any third party with access through the Colorado Judicial Department.
Lawyers who use information from the court filing system to assist with immigration enforcement could be charged with perjury. They must certify online that they will not share personal information from the database with federal immigration officials.
“This certification commandeers private attorneys into Colorado’s radical sanctuary policies, handcuffs federal officials from enforcing immigration law in Colorado, and violates fundamental free speech principles,” the members’ letter says.
The Colorado courts’ electronic filing policy website implemented this certification on March 30, according to the letter, which gave a deadline of April 27 for the state to respond.
“In practice, this means that any attorney logging into Colorado’s state electronic court filing system must certify, ‘under penalty of perjury,’ that the attorney ‘will not use [or disclose] personal identifying information obtained from the database or automated network for the purpose of investigating for, participating in, cooperating with, or assisting in federal immigration enforcement, including enforcement of civil immigration laws’ under federal statute,” the congressmen’s letter says.
Jordan and McClintock wrote to Steven Vasconcellos, the Colorado state court administrator, seeking information including the number of private attorneys punished under enforcement of the law.
The House Judiciary Committee is conducting oversight of state and local jurisdictions nationwide that are not cooperating with federal immigration officials.
The letter references Colorado lawyer Ian Speir, who posted on X: “I cannot log into the state’s official e-filing system without saluting The Resistance. I now cannot represent my clients, file lawsuits, access cases, file documents in existing cases, etc.”
He added that if he declines the certification, “it kicks me out of the system. I must click ‘Accept’ to access the system and continue representing my civil clients — again, in cases that have absolutely nothing to do with immigration law or policy.”
Specifically, the two House chairmen asked the court administrator to provide clarification on the penalties for third parties who violate the certification requirement.
They also asked for the number of complaints received by the Colorado Judicial Branch since May 2025, when Polis signed the bill into law. The letter further requested documents and communications among Colorado judicial branch staff, referring or relating to the implementation of the certification.
[Editor’s note: This story originally was published by The Daily Signal.]