Governor Jared Polis agreed to delay compliance with an ICE subpoena until June 23, which is the next court date related to a whistleblower lawsuit filed by Scott Moss, the director of Colorado’s Division of Labor Standards and Statistics. Moss alleges that Governor Polis required Moss and his team to provide unemployment filings, insurance records, and employer details for 35 sponsors of unaccompanied immigrant minors in Colorado related to an ICE subpoena issued on April 24.
Moss alleges that sharing this information violates HB19-1124, SB21-131, and SB25-276, which are bills signed into law by Governor Polis that require a judicial warrant before law enforcement can provide personal identifying information to federal agents, unless the subpoena is part of a criminal investigation. The subpoena states it is looking for the information about sponsors to locate unaccompanied minor children to make sure they are “properly cared for, and are not subjected to crimes of human trafficking or other forms of exploitation.”
The court will be asked to determine whether ICE’s stated goal of preventing child trafficking qualifies as a criminal investigation under Colorado law and whether the federal supremacy clause permits the federal subpoena to override the state’s privacy protections.
“Complying with this federal subpoena meets the requirements laid out in state law and providing this information is in service of investigating and preventing any criminal activity, which Governor Polis is deeply committed to,” said Shelby Wieman, a spokesperson for Governor Polis.
The Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) program as part of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), a subsidiary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), has been accused of poorly vetting sponsors and potentially placing minor children into the hands of human traffickers. The program is intended to provide safe shelter for minors who are detained by federal authorities while they await immigration proceedings. While the program often places children with relatives, it has also come under scrutiny from both political parties for its oversight and vetting of sponsors. Some children were previously housed in shelters run by organizations such as Southwest Key, which has since been removed from the federal program following several allegations of staff misconduct, including sexual abuse.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. claimed in his budget statement last month that “during the Biden administration, HHS became a collaborator in child trafficking for sex and slavery.” Kennedy described the UAC program as an “assembly line” under the Biden administration, including the insufficient vetting of sponsors. “We are very aggressively going out and trying to find these children that were lost by the Biden administration,” he wrote.
Statements from Kennedy and the Trump administration about child trafficking in relation to the UAC program have drawn notable criticism. NOTUS reported that “former HHS employees and conspiracy theory experts” said the administration is using child trafficking as a pretext to arrest and deport illegal immigrants who are serving as sponsors in the UAC program. President Trump has also been criticized for making $49 million in grant cuts to CASA/GAL, which is a program that helped over 200,000 children in 2023 facing neglect and abuse, which includes trafficking victims.
The Office of Inspector General (OIG) released a report last year, which stated that “as of May 2024, ICE had not served NTAs [Notice to Appear] on more than 291,000 UCs [unaccompanied children] who therefore do not yet have an immigration court date.” The report also mentions 32,000 UCs who failed to appear for immigration court hearings. Whistleblower Tara Rodas and the Trump Administration have alleged that these children are missing.
ICE spokesperson Carmen Hills disputed that interpretation of the data, stating that the OIG report is misleading because ICE delays issuing NTAs until children are placed with sponsors. The OIG report notes that the 32,000 UCs who did not appear at their court proceedings “are considered at higher risk for trafficking, exploitation, or forced labor.” The OIG said there is no formal policy in place to address UCs who fail to show up to court and there is no automated process for sharing information between ICE, HHS, and the DOJ.
In February 2023, the New York Times (NYT) published a story following an investigation and reported that ORR was unable to reach 85,000 migrant unaccompanied children after conducting follow-up calls 30 to 45 days after releasing the child to the sponsor. The NYT investigation included interviews with more than 100 migrant child workers who were operating heavy machinery, working in factories, and shingling roofs to earn money to pay off debts to their sponsors. The NYT also described the pressure HHS agents felt to quickly move kids from overcrowded shelters into the homes of sponsors, including sponsors with multiple children.
In April 2023, the House Oversight Committee questioned Director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement Robin Dunn Marcos about the revelations from the NYT report. Marcos denied that there is an insufficient vetting process or that there are 85,000 missing children.
“Orr seeks to work in the best interest of the child to safely expedite the release of unaccompanied children to a parent, a family member, or other appropriate sponsor and has thorough screening processes in place for all sponsors,” Marcos said during the 2023 hearing. “This includes verifying the relationship to the child, speaking with the child's parents, conducting separate interviews with the child and sponsor, collecting and verifying sponsor information, and documentation administering background checks, address verification, public records, and sex offender registry checks as well as FBI checks in certain cases.”
“We did not lose anyone,” Marcos said. “We provide safety and well-being calls between 30 and 37 days after release Orr's custodial Authority ends when they are discharged to a vetted sponsor.”
The Colorado Sun reported on Monday that Thomas Rogers, an attorney representing Governor Polis, said the case is straightforward, despite Moss’ lawyers' attempt to turn the case into a “circus about the deportation of kids.” According to the Colorado Sun report, Moss’ Attorney Laura Beth Wolf said she doesn’t believe the information is being gathered to investigate human trafficking.
