This story was produced as part of the Colorado Capitol News Alliance. It first appeared at coloradosun.com.
State agencies under Gov. Jared Polis have provided federal immigration officials with Coloradans’ personal information in response to four subpoenas since February.
Shelby Wieman, a spokesperson for Polis, said Tuesday that three of the four subpoenas were related to criminal investigations and the state mistakenly responded to the fourth.
Colorado law prohibits state agencies from providing personal information to federal immigration officials unless it is related to a criminal investigation. A judge found last month that an ICE subpoena the governor’s office sought to respond to did not meet that exception after a state employee sued to halt the disclosure.
“We are implementing procedures to ensure that erroneous sharing does not happen in the future, including elevating any potential responses to (Department of Homeland Security) subpoenas to the Governor’s Office for review and approval,” Wieman said in a written statement.
State agencies under Polis’ purview have received at least nine subpoenas from federal immigration officials since February.
The first subpoena the state responded to came from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations division Feb. 14 asking Colorado’s Department of Labor and Employment to turn over all employment records since Jan. 1, 2024, for a business whose name is redacted.
The subpoena, classified as a “controlled substance enforcement subpoena” cited “an ongoing investigation regarding Human Trafficking and Smuggling along with Narcotics Trafficking.”
The second subpoena that the state responded to came to the state labor department from ICE on Feb. 26 seeking “any and all information for employment records for the past three years” for a list of businesses whose names are redacted. The “controlled substance enforcement subpoena” cited a criminal investigation involving human trafficking.
The third subpoena that the state responded to, this one in error, came from ICE to the state’s labor department March 25 seeking “employee records and wages” since June 1, 2024, for a business whose name is redacted. The subpoena, classified as an “immigration enforcement subpoena,” cites an unspecified HSI investigation.
The fourth subpoena that the state responded to came from ICE to the state’s Colorado Department of Revenue Marijuana Enforcement Division on May 27 seeking “any and all records and documents” for a list of businesses whose names are redacted. The “controlled substance enforcement subpoena” cited a “criminal investigation.”
The state’s Department of Public Health and Environment told ICE it did not have any responsive records in response to a Feb. 28 subpoena seeking “a list of all individuals born” in the state Feb. 8, 2004, and Feb. 8, 2005, according to Wieman.
It’s unclear exactly what records the agencies provided in their responses and whose information was included. In emails between state agencies and federal officials provided to the media Tuesday, people’s first and last names, social security numbers, addresses and employment information are redacted.
It appears that the state did not respond to another three subpoenas from ICE seeking information from the state labor department labeled as “immigration enforcement subpoena” and another from the DHS Office of the Inspector General, according to Wieman. It’s unclear why.
The May 22 subpoena from the DHS inspector general’s office seeks wage information for all employees of a business whose name is redacted. In response to the request on June 12, an employee at Colorado’s labor department asked Blade Bricker, a special agent with the inspector general’s office, why he needed the information, whether his investigation is related to immigration and how he will use the data.
Bricker said the office “conducts fraud, waste and abuse investigations related to DHS programs,” according to an email exchange provided to the media. He said the investigation does not involve immigration and the information will be used “to prove or disapprove an allegation.”
The Polis administration’s decision to comply with ICE’s requests has riled fellow Democrats and immigration advocates.
State agencies aren’t the only ones who have turned over information to ICE.
On Tuesday, Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser announced that he has filed a lawsuit against a Mesa County sheriff’s deputy whose decision last month to share information with federal immigration officials led to the arrest of a 19-year-old college student from Utah.
Asked about any investigation into Polis’ agencies’ responses to the subpoenas, Lawrence Pacheco, spokesperson for Weiser, said, “the attorney general’s office cannot confirm or otherwise comment on an investigation.”
Colorado Capitol Alliance
This story was produced by the Capitol News Alliance, a collaboration between KUNC News, Colorado Public Radio, Rocky Mountain PBS, and The Colorado Sun, and shared with Rocky Mountain Community Radio and other news organizations across the state. Funding for the Alliance is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
