El Paso County joins lawsuit against Colorado 'sanctuary laws'

El Paso County leaders on Tuesday approved a resolution that adds legal teeth to what had been a largely symbolic local fight against state laws they say prioritize the rights of undocumented immigrants at the expense of community safety.

In a unanimous decision, the Board of El Paso County Commissioners gave the go-ahead to join a Douglas County lawsuit challenging two Colorado laws that opponents say undermine local efforts to keep communities safe, especially from undocumented immigrants who commit violent crimes. Commissioner Longinos Gonzalez, who was unable to attend Tuesday’s meeting, was excused from the vote.

Scope of government issues

Broadly speaking, the laws at issue prohibit local governments from cooperating with the federal government in immigration matters.

Describing the laws as state overreach, Commissioner Holly Williams said she believed it was “important” for the county to join the lawsuit, to ensure that the southern Front Range is a safe place to live as the challenges of illegal immigration continue to grow.

“We have had the hands of our sheriff tied,” Williams said, ahead of the vote. “We know that there are undocumented immigrants in El Paso County and there’s no reason why the sheriff shouldn’t be able to cooperate with federal law enforcement when they do need to be taken out of this community.”

Among other things, Colorado House Bill 19-1124, passed in 2019, prohibits local authorities from arresting or detaining a person solely on the basis of a civil immigration order. It also prohibits probation officers from providing undocumented immigrants' identifying information to federal authorities.

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House Bill 23-1100, which went into effect January 1, prohibits local governments from working with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to detain individuals in local jails.

'Doesn't make sense'

In his comments thanking commissioners after the vote, El Paso County Sheriff Joseph Roybal recounted an incident he shared with state lawmakers during recent testimony encouraging the passage of a bill he said would have allowed local and federal law enforcement authorities to work together.

“They ignored my testimony, even when I gave a real life example of how this would have helped here in El Paso County,” said Roybal, describing a scenario in which an illegal immigrant charged with multiple counts of sexual assault on young children bonded out of jail, then left the area and dropped off the radar.

“If I could have worked with ICE … I could have said, ‘Please put a hold on this person, this is a dangerous person, a flight risk,’” Roybal said. “He still would have been sitting in my jail until convicted … (not) victimizing more children out there.”

Roybal went on to point out that his office enters into contracts with a range of federal agencies, including the ATF, DEA, FBI and the military.

“I hold and detain members of our armed forces. The state says I can do that, but I cannot detain and work with ICE,” Roybal said. “That doesn’t make sense.”

Responding to reports that undocumented immigrants could be arriving in Colorado Springs by bus from Denver earlier this year — reports that turned out to be exaggerated — local leaders rushed to approve separate resolutions declaring that despite Colorado’s status as a “sanctuary state,” El Paso County and the city of Colorado Springs are not sanctuary destinations for undocumented immigrants who illegally cross the border into the U.S.

El Paso now joins Douglas County as active, “actionable co-plaintiffs” in the litigation against the state of Colorado.

New substation

In other major business Tuesday, the Board of El Paso County Commissioners approved $15 million in financing for a proposed sheriff’s office substation located near Falcon, in unincorporated El Paso County.

The new substation, which will contain two holding cells, was proposed as a way to ensure sheriff's deputies can respond to crimes faster in the northeast communities of the county, where transporting a suspect to lockup and processing in the Springs can claim “critical” hours’ of a deputy’s day.

"El Paso County consists of more than 2,100 square miles, and the majority of the Sheriff’s Office jurisdiction is located east of Colorado Springs,” Roybal said in a statement lauding the decision Tuesday afternoon. "This substation will allow our patrol deputies assigned near this area to spend more time responding to public safety needs in the district.”

The substation will be located on land donated by the Falcon Fire Protection District near Meridian Road and Stapleton Drive.

The county has said it expects to break ground on the 10,224-square-foot building in September.

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