Trump’s war on immigrants – legal and undocumented, criminal and not – continues, still riddled with errors. For now, Gov. Jared Polis has held off on making a serious mistake himself.
Readers recall that in March, despite a 2019 U.S. immigration judge’s order protecting him from deportation, Kilmar Abrego Garcia was sent to El Salvador. The administration later admitted it was a mistake. More than two months later, on Friday, finally responding to a unanimous Supreme Court directive, Abrego Garcia was returned to the U.S.
On May 29, the Department of Homeland Security published a list of so-called “sanctuary jurisdictions.” The list appeared on DHS’s official website and named 500 jurisdictions said to obstruct immigration enforcement, as directed by an April 28 executive order. It was riddled with errors – cities mislabeled as counties, misspellings and inaccurate designations. After a bipartisan outcry from officials in red and blue jurisdictions alike, DHS quietly pulled the list days later. Visitors now see only a “Page Not Found” error.
This isn’t the first time. A similar list issued under Trump in 2017 was withdrawn by the Department of Justice’s own inspector general because of “significant inaccuracies.” In January, a week into his second term, Trump retaliated and fired more than a dozen federal inspectors general – independent watchdogs who challenged his administration’s actions on immigration and more.
The 10th Amendment is clear. Immigration enforcement is a federal responsibility. The federal government cannot command the states to enforce a federal regulatory program. “ … state and local law enforcement cannot be commandeered to enforce federal civil immigration laws,” Polis said in a bill-signing statement (Journal, Jun. 6).
The Journal’s editorial board appreciates ICE’s role as long as its actions are lawful and don’t undermine trust in law enforcement. Residents, including undocumented ones, must continue to see local law enforcement as protectors, not predators. Our communities are safest when crimes are reported by all residents regardless of their immigration status.
Now, a new controversy is unfolding. Last Thursday, Polis announced Colorado would comply with an ICE subpoena seeking personal information on 35 state residents who served as sponsors for unaccompanied migrant children. ICE claims the sponsors may be linked to child trafficking. This is a dubious claim as sponsors must pass a background check and are thoroughly vetted, though the administration suggests otherwise.
Colorado Public Radio reported that armed federal agents recently made unannounced visits to sponsor homes across the state. Internal ICE documents for these visits mention nothing about protecting trafficking victims, rather to establish a location database and to determine compliance with their immigration responsibilities.
There is nothing in the subpoena – in fact the box was left unchecked – indicating it was about child exploitation. Our suspicions are that ICE’s actions are a fishing expedition to find reasons to remove more immigrants from the country. Often sponsors are family members from the same country of origin as the unaccompanied minors without a lawful immigration status. ICE’s statewide actions are consistent with the administration’s ongoing efforts to meet arbitrary deportation quotas. They are tearing apart and traumatizing youths and families and raise major concerns.
Last Thursday, Polis’ appeared ready to cooperate with ICE in releasing sponsors’ personally identifying information – from email addresses to employment records – an action that is being challenged with a lawsuit by his own state labor director, who argues that releasing PII violates state laws Polis himself signed in 2019, 2021 and again in 2025. These laws ban cooperation with ICE in precisely these circumstances and impose fines of up to $50,000 on employees who comply. Polis’ office initially said his decision was consistent with “carveouts” in the laws, though on Monday, he said he would hold off on complying to await the outcome of the lawsuit.
What are Polis’ motives? Is he trying to avoid federal retaliation or protect federal funding for Colorado? Either way, he has ventured into legally and morally dangerous territory. And we have no reason to believe ICE’s interest here has anything to do with the safety of minors. If Colorado hands over personal data, it could easily be used to target the minors and their sponsors – not protect them.
Our communities are safest when law enforcement agencies cooperate in good faith and uphold public trust. ICE’s actions are doing the opposite: sowing fear, not safety.
