Trump’s war on immigrants – legal and undocumented, criminal and not – continues, still riddled with errors. The Herald’s editorial board believes Gov. Jared Polis has made a serious one himself.
Readers recall that in March, despite a 2019 U.S. immigration judge’s order protecting him from deportation, Kilmar Abrego Garcia was sent to El Salvador. The administration later admitted it was a mistake. More than two months later, on Friday, finally responding to a unanimous Supreme Court directive, Abrego Garcia was returned to the U.S.
Then on May 29, the Department of Homeland Security published a list of so-called “sanctuary jurisdictions,” including the city of Durango and La Plata County (Herald, Jun. 1). The list appeared on DHS’s official website and named 500 jurisdictions said to obstruct immigration enforcement, as directed by an April 28 executive order. It was riddled with errors – cities mislabeled as counties, misspellings and inaccurate designations. After a bipartisan outcry from officials in red and blue jurisdictions alike, DHS quietly pulled the list days later. Visitors now see only a “Page Not Found” error.
This isn’t the first time. A similar list issued under Trump in 2017 was withdrawn by the Department of Justice’s own inspector general because of “significant inaccuracies.” In January, a week into his second term, Trump retaliated and fired more than a dozen federal inspectors general – independent watchdogs who challenged his administration’s actions on immigration and more.
Neither La Plata County nor the city of Durango has declared itself a sanctuary jurisdiction. In fact, in 2015, the city passed a resolution explicitly saying it “is not now nor ever has been a sanctuary city.” La Plata County’s inclusion likely stems from DHS criteria tied to how local law enforcement cooperates with ICE.
Sheriff Sean Smith has made it clear: Immigration enforcement is a federal responsibility. “The federal government cannot command the states to enforce a federal regulatory program,” he said (Herald, Jan. 27), citing the 10th Amendment. While his office had cooperated with ICE, he said federal agents broke that trust on multiple occasions – misrepresenting their goals and compromising his staff’s integrity. “All their problems locally were created by them,” he said. His goal is to ensure all residents, including undocumented ones, see local law enforcement as protectors, not predators. The Herald’s editorial board appreciates ICE’s role as long as its actions are lawful and don’t undermine trust in law enforcement.
Now, a new controversy is unfolding. On Thursday, Polis announced Colorado would comply with an ICE subpoena seeking personal information on 35 state residents who served as sponsors for unaccompanied migrant children. ICE claims the sponsors may be linked to child trafficking. This is a dubious claim as sponsors are thoroughly vetted, though the administration suggests otherwise.
Colorado Public Radio reported (Herald, print edition, Jun. 6) that armed federal agents recently made unannounced visits to sponsor homes across the state. Internal ICE documents for these visits mention nothing about protecting trafficking victims, rather to establish a location database, determine compliance with their immigration responsibilities and if the minors had committed crimes in advance of arriving or while in the U.S.
Our suspicions are that ICE’s actions are a fishing expedition to find reasons to remove these minors from the country. Their actions are also consistent with this administration tearing apart and traumatizing youths and families and raise major concerns.
Polis’ cooperation with ICE is being challenged with a lawsuit by his own state labor director, who argues that releasing personally identifying information violates state laws Polis himself signed in 2019, 2021 and again in 2025. These laws ban cooperation with ICE in precisely these circumstances and impose fines of up to $50,000 on employees who comply. Polis’ office says his decision is consistent with “carveouts” in the laws.
Why is Polis cooperating now? Is he trying to avoid federal retaliation or protect federal funding for Colorado? Either way, he has ventured into legally and morally dangerous territory. And we have no reason to believe ICE’s interest here has anything to do with the safety of minors. If Colorado hands over personal data, it could easily be used to target the minors and their sponsors – not protect them. Friday was the labor department’s deadline to comply.
Our communities are safest when law enforcement agencies cooperate in good faith and uphold public trust. ICE’s actions are doing the opposite: sowing fear, not safety. Now, our governor is doing the same.
