ICE-TELLER COUNTY DEAL IS CHALLENGED

Teller County seeks to allow three deputies to act as federal immigration agents

Six residents and the ACLU of Colorado file suit to try to keep the Teller County Sheriff’s Office from using tax money to pay for a program that would allow three deputies to act as federal immigration enforcement agents under a deal with ICE.

If the Teller County Sheriff’s Office has its way, the county’s taxpayers will foot the bill for implementing a program that would allow three of its deputies to act as federal immigration enforcement agents.

But six Teller County residents in conjunction with the ACLU of Colorado say that’s a violation of state law and the Colorado Constitution.

The ACLU filed a lawsuit Thursday in Teller County District Court, asking a judge to stop the county from enacting an agreement, known as the 287(g), with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The civil rights organization calls the agreement unlawful.

As of last month, ICE had 90 agreements with law enforcement agencies in 21 states that allow local law enforcement officers to act as federal immigration agents, identifying, interviewing and detaining people they suspect are in violation of immigration law, according to the agency’s website. The officers or deputies are trained by ICE, which supervises the program. Federal regulations say the agreements must be consistent with state and local law.

The ACLU alleges that in Colorado, the program is not consistent with state statute. In May, Colorado’s Democratic governor, Jared Polis, signed a law that prohibits county sheriffs from holding inmates past their release dates so ICE agents can pick them up.

“It makes it crystal clear that arrests or detentions on the basis of ICE documents that are not reviewed or signed by a judge are forbidden by Colorado statute and the legislature declared by the Colorado Constitution,” said ACLU legal director Mark Silverstein.

The agreement also isn’t consistent with the Colorado Constitution based on a 2018 court ruling, Silverstein added.

The Teller County Sheriff’s Office declined to comment on the lawsuit.

The Teller County sheriff is the only Colorado agency participating in the 287(g) program. Officials signed the agreement in January, but it doesn’t take effect until the sheriff’s office sends its three deputies to the four-week training in South Carolina, Silverstein said.

The El Paso County Sheriff’s Office ended its agreement in 2015 but continued to hold prisoners after they had posted bail or their cases had been resolved at the request of ICE. A state district court ruled the practice unconstitutional last year after an ACLU classaction lawsuit.

Thursday’s lawsuit cites some