Colorado Legislature Moves Forward with Bill to Strengthen Immigrant Protections

A bill that protects state and local officials from federal immigration enforcement even more and names public buildings in Colorado as places where immigrants can temporarily hide from federal immigration agents moved forward on a preliminary vote Friday in the State House.

A change was made to Senate Bill 25-276, but it was not approved. The change was brought up an hour after lawmakers learnt of two steps the federal government took on Friday to put pressure on Colorado state leaders over their “sanctuary” policies.

The first was a presidential order from President Trump that said local police departments that broke federal immigration law would lose federal funds.

For the second part, the U.S. Department of Justice sued the City and County of Denver, the State of Colorado, Gov. Jared Polis, Mayor Mike Johnston, the Denver Sheriff, and Colorado’s Attorney General to “put an end to those disastrous policies and restore the supremacy of federal immigration law,” as the complaint for the lawsuit put it.

A Republican from El Paso County named state Rep. Jarvis Caldwell introduced an amendment that would get rid of the bill if any part of the state government lost federal money because of the changes it suggested. The amendment failed by a vote of 41 to 22 with two lawmakers not voting.

🚨BREAKING: Just one hour after the DOJ announced they are suing Colorado over its sanctuary policies, @RepCaldwell ran an amendment to SB25-276 that would repeal the bill if it cost the state federal funding. Democrats killed it. They would rather risk millions than reconsider… pic.twitter.com/HW8VA6jiO

— Colorado House Republicans (@COHouseGOP) May 3, 2025

It was passed by the Colorado Senate without a single vote last month. It is still being looked at in the House.

SB 25-276 protects immigrants’ data privacy by not letting local governments, judges, and schools share some personal data.

Also, police officers from the Colorado State Patrol, municipal police forces, town marshal’s offices, and county sheriff’s offices are not allowed to arrest or detain anyone because of an immigration detainer request.

It also says that federal immigration agents can’t go into public schools and colleges, hospitals, health care and child care centres, churches, libraries, and jails without an order.

“Colorado is stronger when we can all contribute to our economy without fear,” said state Rep. Elizabeth Velasco, a Democrat from Glenwood Springs and one of the bill’s sponsors, in a news release. “The attacks on our civil liberties by the Trump administration have caused chaos in our immigrant communities. Parents are afraid to pick up their kids from creche, and workers are afraid to go to work.” Our families are hurt by this fear, but so is our city and Colorado’s economy as a whole. Today, we’re taking steps to strengthen Colorado’s laws on sharing personal information and to reaffirm our existing protections to make sure everyone gets due process, no matter their immigration situation.

In 2014, the Denver Sheriff’s Department chose not to honour federal immigration detainers.

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