Questions are swirling about how the Trump administration’s new immigration policies will continue to affect Colorado, especially after federal agents went door to door in Denver and Aurora last week detaining an unknown number of people.
Could an immigration enforcement operation like the 2006 raid of a Greeley meat-packing plant that resulted in 262 arrests happen again? Would hiding in a church to avoid deportation, like Jeanette Vizguerra did during the last Trump administration, work now?
Here are answers to some major immigration questions.
Can local law enforcement arrest someone for their immigration status?
No. Under Colorado law passed in 2019, local law enforcement officers are not allowed to make an arrest or detain a person based solely on their immigration status or an ICE request.
They also are barred under state law from notifying ICE about the immigration status of someone in their custody. However, if law officers arrest someone who has an ICE detainer, they can notify ICE when that person is being released from custody. They cannot, however, detain people after their release in order to facilitate pickup by ICE.
“If the city receives a release notification request from ICE for someone in custody, we will comply,” Denver Mayor Mike Johnston said recently. “However, our law enforcement officers are not immigration officers, and we will never ask them to do the work of the federal government via immigration enforcement. The bottom line is Denver will always enforce criminal law and maintain public safety, regardless of an individual’s immigration status.”
Pueblo County Sheriff David Lucero said recently that his office will not participate in any ICE roundups, but would help support the federal officers in cases involving criminal charges and for backup if an officer is in danger.
“If there is something criminal related and we know the offender is in our county, absolutely we will support them,” Lucero said in a statement. “We will not support any roundup operations. My role isn’t to enforce immigration laws. I am not the federal sheriff. My role is to enforce Colorado law and to ensure the safety of the citizens of Pueblo County.”
State law “prohibits depriving a person of their liberty on the basis of a suspected civil immigration violation in the absence of a warrant signed by a judge,” the ACLU said.
Probation officers are prohibited from sharing information with ICE.
Last year, the Colorado Court of Appeals ruled that the Teller County sheriff’s practice of holding undocumented immigrants in its county jail through an agreement with federal authorities violated state law.
When is it illegal to report someone to ICE?
It is illegal, under a Colorado law passed in 2021, to threaten to report another person’s immigration status to law enforcement to pressure them to perform an act or refrain from performing a lawful act.
Colorado also has a specific law to protect tenants from this type of threat.
The ACLU of Colorado recently filed a lawsuit against an Aurora landlord alleging that the landlord made repeated threats to report tenants to immigration authorities, a violation of Colorado’s Immigrant Tenant Protection Act. The Venezuelan tenants said the landlord wanted to evict them, changed the locks without telling them and repeatedly threatened to call ICE if the family did not vacate, the ACLU said. The tenants have pending asylum cases to try to stay in the United States.
Can a federal agent demand a list of residents, employees, students, etc., who do not have Social Security numbers?
Under Colorado law, state agencies cannot share personal identifying information with ICE unless ICE provides a warrant or a subpoena.
State agencies can only collect immigration status when they are required by state or federal law.
Are there “protected areas” in Colorado where federal agents cannot make immigration-related arrests?
The rules on this have recently changed.
The Trump administration last month reversed a 2011 policy that prevented agents from making arrests in sensitive locations, including schools and churches. The policy was made under former President Obama and reinstated under President Biden.
But under the new administration, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced the end of that policy and said it is allowing agents more authority to carry out immigration enforcement. This set off panic in some Colorado schools and might have resulted in an increase in absences.
“Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest. The Trump Administration will not tie the hands of our brave law enforcement, and instead trusts them to use common sense,” Benjamine Huffman, the acting Homeland Security secretary said Jan. 21.
In addition to schools, the previous federal policy listed several other protected areas, including medical facilities, churches, day care centers, social service centers, funerals and graveside ceremonies and places where there is an ongoing parade, demonstration or rally.
Local elected officials are opposed but somewhat powerless to stop it.
“We also believe that everyone deserves to be able to get an education, get health care, and worship without fear,” the Denver mayor’s office said. “Schools, hospitals and churches are the bedrock of the community and essential to providing the services that build healthy societies. We strongly oppose immigration enforcement or raids in these sensitive locations and will do everything in our legal authority to protect them.”
ICE cannot make arrests in or around courthouses or when someone is on their way to or from court, under federal policy.
In 2017, the First Unitarian Society church in Denver allowed a mother of four who was facing deportation back to Mexico to hide in its building. Jeanette Vizguerra, a housekeeper who was accused of using a made-up Social Security number on a job application, lived in the sanctuary for more than three years before deportation proceedings were halted by the Biden administration.
For what reasons can ICE agents legally arrest someone?
ICE is authorized to arrest individuals suspected of immigration violations. Federal immigration agents can arrest people without legal status, even if they have no criminal record or pending charges.
Immigrant advocacy groups are advising people not to answer their doors at home if ICE knocks. Federal immigration agents are not allowed to enter without a warrant signed by a judge. ICE has not responded to questions about whether it had a warrant for the raids conducted in Denver and Aurora last week. The agency was accompanied by several other federal law officers, including from the Drug Enforcement Administration, which said it had a warrant.
Can state laws ever supersede federal law on immigration?
No, but states have the power to make laws surrounding immigration as long as they do not conflict with federal law. It’s solely up to the federal government to regulate who can enter the country, yet states have the authority under the Tenth Amendment to limit their involvement in federal immigration enforcement, which is how Colorado is allowed to prohibit local authorities from arresting people because of an immigration detainer.
States also can decide things such as whether immigrants need to show proof of legal status to get driver’s licenses. In Colorado, that proof is not required.
Federal law restricts undocumented immigrants from receiving federal public benefits, including Medicaid and food assistance. But states have the power to manage some public benefits as long as they are funded by the state. In 2021, the Colorado legislature made state and local benefits, including retirement, food assistance, health care and housing, available to undocumented residents.
What rights does someone have after they are detained by ICE? Can they be deported without a hearing?
Only an immigration judge can order someone’s deportation — but there are exceptions.
Immigrants without legal status have a right to defend themselves in a court hearing, as long as they have not been deported previously. There is also an exception called “expedited removal,” which allows the Department of Homeland Security to deport someone without a hearing.
The rules surrounding expedited removal can change with the administration, and the Trump administration has already “dramatically expanded” the reasons for expedited removal, according to a lawsuit filed by the ACLU.
The Trump administration issued a rule Jan. 21 that said expedited removal now applies to people found anywhere in the country who cannot prove they have been in the United States for more than two years. Prior to this, federal agents only used expedited removal against people within 100 miles of the border and within 14 days of their arrival in the country, according to the National Immigration Law Center.
Undocumented immigrants have the right to consult an attorney, but the government does not provide one for free the way it does in serious criminal cases. Colorado has more than 77,000 pending immigration cases at the federal courthouse in Denver and inside the ICE detention center in Aurora.
Are raids allowed on businesses or factories suspected of employing people who are undocumented?
ICE agents are allowed to enter public spaces such as restaurants or stores. However, they cannot enter private areas of a workplace unless they have a warrant or permission from the employer, according to the ACLU.
In 2006, more than 100 federal agents raided the Swift & Co meat-packing plant in Greeley, arresting 262 workers. It was the largest immigration raid in U.S. history, news outlets reported at the time, saying Latino neighborhoods in the Weld County city were abandoned as people fled in fear or hid in basements.
ICE raided five other Swift plants in Texas, Utah, Nebraska, Iowa and Minnesota, detaining 1,297 undocumented workers. The raids were the result of an investigation into fraudulent Social Security numbers.
What does it mean that Trump is ending temporary protected status?
Some of the relatives of people taken during last week’s raids in Denver and Aurora said their loved ones had temporary protected status, a federal designation that grants temporary legal status to people from specific countries that are facing humanitarian crises. People from Haiti, Afghanistan and Venezuela have been allowed to enter the country in recent years through TPS.
It allows them to live and work in the United States while their home countries are facing political or environmental crises, but does not give them permanent legal status.
About 600,000 Venezuelans across the country have temporary protected status that had been extended by former President Biden until October 2026. Trump’s new homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, revoked that extension, meaning the designation for those 600,000 Venezuelans will expire in April.
Migrants whose temporary protected status has expired could face deportation.