A Colorado sheriff’s practice of holding undocumented immigrants in jail through an agreement with federal immigration authorities violates state law, the Colorado Court of Appeals found Wednesday, reversing a district judge’s ruling.
The decision is the latest turn in a yearslong battle between Teller County Sheriff Jason Mikesell and the American Civil Liberties Union, which sued him on behalf of five taxpayers arguing that Colorado law forbids the sheriff’s office from detaining people accuse of state crimes who are otherwise eligible for release and then turning them over to ICE officers.
The case will return to lower court, the ACLU said Wednesday.
Through the county’s agreement with federal immigration authorities, called a 287(g) agreement, the sheriff’s office held people living in the country illegally in jail after they posted bond.
“Today the court made clear that this harmful and anti-immigrant practice violates Colorado law and cannot be tolerated. This is the first case in the country holding that a sheriff violates state law by detaining immigrants pursuant to a 287(g) agreement with ICE,” Tim Macdonald, ACLU of Colorado Legal Director said in a statement Wednesday.
“We brought this case out of concern for the harm that the sheriff’s agreement inflicts on all Coloradans. Local law enforcement officers have no business acting as federal immigration agents and keeping immigrants in jail — especially when state law expressly forbids them from doing so. The court’s ruling sends an important message that no Colorado sheriff is above the law,” he said.
An attorney for Mikesell could not immediately be reached Wednesday afternoon.
Lawyers for the ACLU of Colorado filed the lawsuit in 2019, shortly after Colorado enacted a statute that prohibits state law enforcement officers from arresting or detaining people on the basis of ICE documents that are not signed by a judge.
A judge ruled in 2020 that the plaintiffs did not have a legal standing to sue, but the Colorado Court of Appeals reversed the decision and sent the case back to district court.
In February 2023, Teller County District Court Judge Scott Sells ruled that the sheriff had legal authority to enter the 287(g) agreement with ICE, which allowed deputies to enforce immigration law in exchange for training.
The ACLU filed an appeal with a panel of three judges with the Colorado Court of Appeals shortly after.
The closely watched case brought broad implications for the rest of the state. Teller County was the only Colorado county that still had a 287(g) agreement with ICE.
In sending the case back to Sells, the appeals panel directed the judge to revisit an earlier request by the ACLU for an injunction to halt the practice of holding undocumented immigrants at ICE’s request.