Denver’s anti-ICE policies are enabling heroin dealers

On average, 115 people die each day in this country from overdosing on heroin and similar opioid drugs. Since 1999, we saw a five-fold increase in the number of deaths involving opioids, and they accounted for the majority of overdose fatalities. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that in 2015, Colorado saw 159 heroin overdose deaths. This is an epidemic. Our neighborhoods, schools and families are under attack.

We all need to work together to win the war against heroin overdoses. Unfortunately, last year, Denver chose to leave the team. The Denver City Council passed an ordinance in 2017 that prevents the Denver Police Department from working with the federal immigration officials to target the international importation and distribution of heroin.

I don’t believe Mayor Michael Hancock intended to create a sanctuary for drug dealers in Denver. The political leadership in Denver wanted to prevent people from being deported by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Many of those people are hardworking and stuck in a broken immigration system. Unfortunately, by protecting illegal immigrants, this ordinance has also given sanctuary to foreign drug dealers.

In my conversations with the Drug Enforcement Administration, I’ve learned that Denver is a hub for heroin trafficking in the Rocky Mountain region. And many of the foot soldiers in this operation come to the United States illegally.

In fact, in 2016, ICE arrested more than 59 individuals in Denver as a result of a major operation against heroin trafficking. Many of those arrested had immigrated illegally from Central America, according to the ICE Denver field office. Denver police will no longer work joint operations with ICE in these instances.

This is why Denver’s new policy makes so little sense. We can all agree that individuals who enter the U.S. illegally and then make heroin available to our neighbors, our friends and our children should not be allowed to live in this country. They should be deported immediately.

But Denver’s new ordinance and Denver Police Department leadership’s explicit policy prohibits officers from working with ICE to determine immigration status, unless that assis- tance is required by a federal warrant. Whereas ICE and police officers used to work in concert to deport illegal immigrants who contributed to the scourge of the heroin epidemic in Colorado, now such cooperation only places local police officers at risk of criminal prosecution, fines and imprisonment.

All levels of government are responsible for finding solutions to this crisis. At the federal level, the House has passed legislation to help combat the crisis from multiple angles. And the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security held a hearing this week to investigate the consequences of Denver’s non-cooperation. The message was loud and clear: the ban on local-federal communication only makes Denver and the rest of the state more vulnerable to heroin trafficking.

I encourage Denver and Mayor Hancock to revise their policies. We cannot provide sanctuary to those individuals who profit off of the pain and suffering of others. Those unlawful immigrants who enter this country and contribute to the heroin trade do not deserve to be here.

If we’re going to win this war against drug trafficking, then we must work together. Local, state and federal authorities are stronger in unison, and we need as much strength as we can garner to fight one of our nation’s most pressing problems.