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President-elect Donald Trump on “Meet the Press” Sunday, Dec. 8, 2024 (NBC News/YouTube).
The Justice Department under President Trump is taking legal action against Denver, Colorado, and local officials, citing their “disastrous policies” and “sanctuary laws.” These actions are claimed to hinder and bias against the enforcement of federal immigration laws.
This lawsuit, filed on Friday, represents the Trump administration’s second legal challenge toward a state over “sanctuary policies.” These policies are alleged to intentionally limit collaboration with federal immigration enforcement. Previously, in February, a lawsuit targeted Chicago and Illinois, accusing local authorities of obstructing and complicating the duties of federal immigration officers.
The lawsuit against Denver and Colorado highlights incidents in the Mile High City and surrounding areas, such as Aurora, pointing specifically to the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua as evidence of the shortcomings of “sanctuary” laws.
“At the end of last year, the nation was shocked by images and videos of members of Tren de Aragua seizing control of apartment complexes in Aurora, Colorado,” the DOJ’s complaint says.
“The fact that a foreign terrorist organization could gain such a foothold in the United States of America is unacceptable,” the department alleges. “It is the direct byproduct of the sanctuary policies pushed by the State of Colorado, and certain of its subdivisions. This is a suit to put an end to those disastrous policies and restore the supremacy of federal immigration law.”
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Responding to the lawsuit, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis issued a statement saying that if the courts were to deem “any Colorado law” as being not valid, then the state would follow the ruling. The City of Denver, meanwhile, said it “will not be bullied or blackmailed, least of all by an administration that has little regard for the law and even less for the truth,” according to The Denver Post.
Colorado, much like Illinois, has become one of the epicenters for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations since President Donald Trump took office in January.
The DOJ says Colorado’s policies, specifically, have “tied the hands of law enforcement, emboldened dangerous criminals and left [Colorado’s] communities vulnerable,” according to its complaint.
“Local communities in Colorado have borne the brunt of these policies,” the complaint alleges. “In the words of Douglas County Colorado Commissioner Kevin Van Winkle: ‘We swore an oath to protect public safety, but these laws prevent us from doing so. … These laws require us to conceal the identity of those who committed a crime and are here illegally. That’s a serious public safety issue.””
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For its Illinois suit, the Trump administration cribbed from the Barack Obama administration’s playbook and sourced legal theories from a 2010 lawsuit filed by the Obama administration against Arizona S.B. 1070, a statute widely known as the “show me your papers” law. The Obama-era lawsuit ultimately made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court in a 2012 case stylized as Arizona v. United States. The result was largely a victory for federal authorities, applying the theory that most of the state law conflicted with or was otherwise preempted by federal immigration law on point.
In 2018, the first Trump administration filed a lawsuit against California over its sanctuary policies. That lawsuit ultimately went nowhere, though, as the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled in the Golden State’s favor and the nation’s high court denied the government’s petition for writ of certiorari.
