A whistleblower lawsuit has emerged, accusing Colorado Governor Jared Polis of covertly pressuring local authorities to provide the Trump administration with private financial details of residents sponsoring unaccompanied immigrant children. This alleged action reportedly compelled officials to breach state privacy laws under threat of termination.

Scott Moss, the director of the Division of Labor Standards and Statistics under Polis’s administration, filed a civil complaint in Denver on Wednesday. The complaint outlines various “professional and personal harms,” including enforced “illegal acts” contravening legislation that Polis signed himself. Law&Crime accessed the lawsuit on Monday.

Moss’ lawyers accuse Polis, a Democrat, of issuing “an illegal directive” to collaborate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and give up financial information of residents sponsoring immigrant children. An “immigration enforcement subpoena” was issued behind closed doors, according to Moss, that Polis allegedly signed.

“As one of those state employees, and the supervisor of many others with less financial or personal ability to resist an illegal directive from the Governor, Moss protested — repeatedly, discreetly, and internally, and both verbally and in writing — that the ICE collaboration sought by Governor Polis was illegal, dangerous to state employees who would place themselves at personal risk by following illegal orders, harmful to Colorado residents, and a breach of the promises Governor Polis made and authorized that Colorado would not misuse its residents’ PII [personally identifiable information] by turning it over for immigration seizures,” Moss’ attorneys write in his complaint. “Though not given the opportunity to communicate these points directly to the Governor, he was told that despite his protests, he was expected to follow Polis’s directive.”

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Moss claims he was initially instructed by higher-ups that the Polis administration was “analyzing its rights and options” before a decision could be made on how to respond to the ICE subpoena. “In internal discussions within state government, Moss reported that it would be illegal to produce the PII [personally identifiable information] requested by the ICE subpoena,” his complaint says.

Moss was allegedly told last month that the Polis administration had decided not to produce the private info requested by the subpoena.

“Only weeks later, in the last week of May — and just before the May 26th production date ICE requested — Governor Polis personally decided, and state officials including Moss were notified, that Polis wanted CDLE [Colorado Department of Labor and Employment] to produce the PII requested by the ICE subpoena,” his complaint charges.

Moss alleges that the Polis administration is flouting a 2021 law signed into effect by him that bars state agencies from sharing nonpublic personal info with federal immigration officials unless a court orders them to do so. He also accuses government officials of forcing him and others to violate a 2025 law that Polis just signed on May 23, which alters and extends the 2021 law to expand sharing restrictions.

The Polis directive “harms an unknown but potentially large number of state employees, by directing them to commit illegal acts, risking a wide range of professional and personal harms, including personal penalties of up to $50,000 per violation under the legislation Governor Polis himself signed into law,” per Moss’ complaint.

“The subpoena does not allege that there is an ongoing criminal investigation, nor does it cite any criminal law that has allegedly been violated or any probable cause supporting any unidentified criminal investigation,” the complaint adds. “The ICE collaboration directive thereby imposes a choice between harmful options upon Moss and other state employees.”