In yet another escalation of its anti-immigrant agenda, the Trump administration’s Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a lawsuit on Friday against Colorado and the city of Denver for allegedly obstructing federal immigration enforcement. The suit objects to sanctuary policies — local initiatives to protect immigrant communities from federal deportation efforts — and argues that such policies encroach on federal authority.
This move follows Donald Trump’s recent executive order instructing the DOJ to penalize sanctuary cities, including threatening to withhold federal funding. “These executive orders are just the latest escalation in the Trump administration’s shakedown of cities, states, and elected officials that refuse to offer up local resources for the administration’s mass deportation and detention agenda,” Naureen Shah, director of government affairs for the ACLU’s Equality Division, said in a statement.
In the complaint challenging Colorado and Denver sanctuary policies, the DOJ argues that the federal government has “preemptive authority to regulate immigration matters,” and claims that the policies were crafted “by intent and design” to obstruct federal immigration enforcement efforts.
The DOJ lawsuit specifically targets several Colorado state laws and Denver municipal ordinances that the agency says “interfere with and discriminate against the Federal Government’s enforcement of federal immigration law.” Among these are HB19-1124, a 2019 law prohibiting state and local law enforcement from arresting or detaining people based solely on federal immigration detainer requests; SB21-131, which bars state employees from sharing personal identifying information with federal immigration agencies; and HB23-1100, a 2023 law that prevents local jails from contracting with federal immigration authorities to detain immigrants. Similarly, Denver’s city policies also restrict cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), barring local officials from assisting ICE without a court order and denying ICE access to secure jail facilities.
“Everyone is entitled to constitutional protection,” Nicole Cervera Loy with the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition, told local network Denver7. “And so, I would be very concerned to see these laws being taken away.”
The lawsuit also cites a debunked far right narrative claiming the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua had taken over an apartment complex in Aurora — an unfounded allegation promoted by Trump last year, despite being publicly refuted by Aurora’s police chief. In January, Trump signed an executive order designating Tren de Aragua as a terrorist organization and authorized the removal of hundreds of people — many without due process or evidence of gang ties — to a U.S.-funded concentration camp in El Salvador.
Responding to the DOJ lawsuit, the Denver Mayor’s Office declared that the city “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.” The Colorado Attorney General’s Office also affirmed that its office “is committed to defending Colorado law and has done so successfully in the past in this area. We stand ready to do so again.”
This DOJ lawsuit comes as lawmakers in Colorado actively seek to boost protections for immigrant communities. On Saturday, the Colorado House passed Senate Bill 25-276, which prohibits local officials from sharing personal immigration data with ICE and restricts ICE access to public spaces like schools, hospitals, and libraries without a warrant. Officials who deliberately violate the data sharing provision of the bill could be fined $50,000, which would be used by Colorado’s immigration legal defense fund.
“One of the reasons why I appreciate this bill so much is that it is one of few that is really taking seriously the crisis that the federal administration poses for immigrants in particular and for marginalized people generally,” said Democratic state Rep. Yara Zokaie.
The bill now heads to the desk of Democratic Gov. Jared Polis, whose record on immigration rights has often been criticized as inadequate.
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