Before this administration, ICE officers showed ID. They didn’t wear masks. When they crossed a line, the Justice Department investigated.
It largely doesn’t now.
What exists instead is video of a masked, federal agent grabbing Durango resident Franci Stagi by the hair, putting her in a chokehold and throwing her down an embankment during a protest outside a local ICE facility. Colorado banned chokeholds after George Floyd’s death. Officer Nicholas Rice didn’t consider that his problem. La Plata County District Attorney Sean Murray did – and filed assault charges this week (Herald, April 24).
One line holding.
A Denver judge this week also blocked – for the second time – Gov. Jared Polis from handing ICE the personal information of Coloradans who sponsor unaccompanied immigrant children. The subpoena claimed a human trafficking investigation; the judge called it what it was: repackaged. It took a lawsuit to stop it. Polis was prepared to comply. (Herald, April 22)
A second line holding – no thanks to the governor.
The federal government’s response to the Colorado charges: DHS declared that federal officers can only be investigated by other federal agencies. Self-policing, in other words. Colorado – and Minnesota and Chicago and California, with similar cases – has decided that’s not good enough.
Legislators are pushing further. Senate Bill 176 would allow Coloradans to sue federal officials – and yes, state and local officials – for constitutional violations. Critics warn of frivolous suits. But accountability cuts both ways – being sued isn’t the same as losing.
Meanwhile, Trump has twice denied Colorado disaster aid for wildfires and flooding – while approving requests from Republican-leaning states at roughly twice the rate of Democratic ones. Colorado’s attorney general Phil Weiser has filed over 60 lawsuits against the administration on multiple fronts. (Herald, April 15)
States don’t usually have to protect their residents from their own federal government.
We’re there now.
