3 days Ago By The Gazette editorial board
Colorado took $2.7 million from the federal government in bad faith, either lying or breaking state law. Though it is minor in terms of waste, the Trump administration should recoup this cash.
Either Colorado officials lied on an application, or they broke state statutes that conflict with the state constitution. This is the chaos wrought by extremists with unlimited power. The money came in 2022 from the federal government’s State Criminal Alien Assistance (SCAAP) program, administered under the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) in conjunction with U.
S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). “SCAAP provides federal payments to states and localities that incurred correctional officer salary costs for incarcerating undocumented criminal aliens with at least one felony or two misdemeanor convictions.
..” states the BJA’s website.
The money is given with an agreement: “Each applicant government is to provide detailed information about the individuals the applicant government ‘incarcerated’ for at least 4 consecutive days...
and who the applicant government either knows were ‘undocumented criminal aliens’ or reasonably and in good faith believes were ‘undocumented criminal aliens.’” Colorado law enforcement authorities — state, county and local — could not abide by the agreement without violating state law. In 2019, the legislature’s radicalized Democratic majority passed a bill that would keep any law enforcement official from providing information about incarcerated illegal alien convicts.
House Bill 19-1124 states: “The federal government does not have the authority to command state or local officials to enforce or administer a federal regulatory program.” And: “Colorado has the right to be free from mandates or financial obligations to perform the duties of the federal government.” And: “Any requirement that public safety agencies play a role in enforcing federal civil immigration laws can undermine public trust.
” And: “A law enforcement officer shall not arrest or detain an individual on the basis of a civil immigration detainer request.” And: “A probation officer or probation department employee shall not provide personal information about an individual to federal immigration authorities.” This law makes clear that any officer of the “Colorado state patrol, a municipal police department, a town marshal’s office, or a county sheriff’s office” shall not cooperate with ICE, let alone provide detailed information required under the grant agreement.
If that law weren’t enough to prevent federal enforcement, the activist legislature doubled down four years later with House Bill 23-1100. That law, equally hostile to federal immigration efforts, prohibits a state or local entity from contracting, receiving payment for, or paying a private correctional entity from detaining illegal immigrants. In every way imaginable, Colorado tells federal immigration authorities to pound sand.
Denver Mayor Michael Johnston pledges to block future enforcement with an army of activists. Yet, for a few million bucks, Colorado promised to help. Both sanctuary laws violate the state constitution, for which the sheriffs and commissioners of Colorado’s largest and sixth-largest counties — El Paso and Douglas — are suing for relief.
The constitution says nothing shall “prohibit the state or any of its political subdivisions from cooperating...
with the government of the United States to provide any function, service or facility...
” It also says nothing shall “prohibit” any city county or town from “contracting with private persons, associations or corporations for the provision of any legally authorized functions.” Ideological extremists made this mess, while taking money to help solve a problem they work hard to exacerbate. Remember all this the next time illegal immigrants kidnap, threaten, torture or kill the most vulnerable among us.
.
