Act now! Contact Gov. Polis - VETO Colorado Sanctuary State bill!
Act now! Contact Gov. Polis - Veto Colorado Sanctuary State bill HB19-1124.
The misguided Colorado Sanctuary State for illegal aliens bill has been passed by the Democrat legislature and waiting for Gov. Polis to sign - or to veto.
(See bill history here and here.)
Take action now! Contact Gov. Polis.
Website: www.colorado.gov/governor contact via website: issues legislation
136 State Capitol, Denver, CO 80203-1792
Phone: 303-866-2471, Fax: 303-866-2003
Tell Gov. Polis that sanctuary policies:
- Threaten public safety;
- Are costly;
- Conflict with federal law; and
- Are unfair to legal immigrants.
Why should you contact Gov. Polis?
Because he has expressed concern about signing such a radical bill - see background information below. Yet he is undoubtedly being pressured by the radical Democrat legislature and by special interest groups to sign HB 1124 into law. Thus, it is important for you to tell Gov. Polis to support, not undermine, the rule of law.
Also, legislation transmitted to the governor within the last 10 days of the session must be acted upon within 30 days after the last day of the session, or it becomes law without being signed. Thus, Polis could do nothing and the bill would automatically become law. Tell Gov. Polis to veto HB 1124!
In addition, please forward this alert to your like-minded family members and friends and ask them to take action too!
Background
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Prohibitions on state and local governments using public funds or resources to assist Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in enforcing federal civil immigration laws; such prohibitions, Polis argues, would jeopardize federal public safety funding for Colorado, $2.7 million of which Polis and Weiser recently sued the Trump administration to preserve Prohibitions on ICE officials accessing secure areas of city and county jails.
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Language that states ICE and Colorado officials may only coordinate in the interest of enforcing criminal law.
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Prohibitions on the ability of the state or its political subdivisions entering into contracts that lead to employees assisting ICE in enforcing federal civil immigration laws.
- Prohibitions on Colorado law enforcement officers arresting or detaining people based solely on the basis of a civil immigration detainer; “This politicizes or compromises partnerships between front-line level state and federal investigators, and will be counterproductive to building goodwill and working together to protect public safety, the statement argues.
"These relationships between local law enforcement and federal law enforcement is an extremely important relationship, and we're not about to tell local law enforcement what their relationship with other law enforcement agencies should be," Polis said. "That's a very important relationship to keep people safe … ICE is absolutely a legitimate llaw enforcement agency."
From the Denver Post:
"What frustrates us at the state level is that immigration needs to be fixed federally. It's a federal problem," Polis said. "There aren't a lot of good options for states. Certainly, we want to treat every resident of our state — as long as they follow our laws — with dignity and respect."
He added that he wanted the state to continue working with all federal law enforcement agencies and called the Immigration and Customs Enforcement a "legitimate" agency, despite some federal Democratic lawmakers calling for its abolition.
Capitol review: 4 key immigrant [and illegal alien] bills passed, but a big one failed, Colorado Independent, May 6, 2019:
A pair of bills that failed were attempts to protect immigrants from ICE by drawing clear lines about locations and circumstances that would be off limits to federal immigration officers.
The first of these efforts, known as Virginia’s Law, flamed out in dramatic fashion. Feelings were hurt, bridges were burned, activists were disappointed.
But lawmakers brought another bill, HB-1124. The bill did pass, but as a shell of what it was only a few weeks ago. It bans state law enforcement officers from detaining people beyond their scheduled date of release at the request of ICE. It also bans probation officers from releasing personal identifying information to ICE about a detainee, unless ICE has a warrant. Finally, it requires law enforcement officers to provide an “advisement of rights” to immigrants ahead of interviews with ICE.
That has everything to do with pushback from Polis, who opposes “sanctuary state” policies and has on multiple occasions expressed support for ICE as a legitimate law enforcement agency. His clear line in the sand on that front — it wasn’t so clear at first, but we now know much more about his thinking — is a political reality that immigrant rights advocates and their champions at the legislature will have to reckon with in 2020 and beyond.