Colorado Republican U.S. Representatives Gabe Evans (CO-8), Lauren Boebert (CO-4), and Jeff Crank (CO-5) signed a joint letter on January 17 to Colorado Governor Jared Polis asking him to take action on illegal immigration. During Polis’ State of the State address, he said “we welcome more federal help to detain and deport dangerous criminals.” In the letter, the representatives called out Governor Polis for passing “sanctuary state policies” that negatively affect the state.
The representatives refer to the Tren De Aragua apartment takeover in Aurora in December, as well as struggling hospitals and schools due to the “influx of immigrants” populating them. The letter references a study and report by the Denver Gazette that concluded that the entrance of 43,000 immigrants into Denver cost the city $356 million over the span of two years. That number includes $228 million within Denver area hospitals, $79 million within the city of Denver, and $49 million within the city’s schools. This equates to $8,000 in cost for the city for every immigrant that entered during this two year period.
Evans, Boebert, and Crank blame the increased costs on Polis’ “sanctuary policies.” The letter states “This crisis has been fueled by misguided policies from the State Legislature in Denver over the past decade, policies which handcuff state and local police officers from cooperating with their federal counterparts to protect our communities from illegal immigrants.”
The reps ask Polis to “back up” his statements by asking the legislature to overturn three specific policies. The letter lists and describes the following policies: HB 19-1124 “explicitly prohibits state and local law enforcement in Colorado from complying with federal immigration detainers.” SB 21-131 “prevents state agencies and law enforcement from sharing non-public personal identifying information with federal immigration authorities except when forced to do so by a court of law.” HB 23-1100 “prohibits a state or local entity from entering a contract, receiving payment for, or paying an entity for an immigration detention facility within Colorado.”
Evans, Boebert, and Crank urged Governor Polis to act upon his statements and move to reverse these policies. They wrote, “until then, your plans are nothing more than empty and politically motivated rhetoric and Coloradans deserve better than that.”
President Donald Trump and his administration began mass deportation efforts last week under the guidance of Border Czar Tom Homan. The Rocky Mountain Division of the DEA targeted a “makeshift nightclub” last week and posted to X about the raid. The post tags the local departments of Homeland Security, the ATF, and ICE. The collaborative raid was an early morning operation targeting drug trafficking and members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua (TdA). Drugs, weapons, and cash were seized in Adams County. Nearly 50 illegal aliens were taken into custody.
ICE has been posting daily updates to X showing the agency is arresting hundreds of illegal aliens per day and filed hundreds of more detainers, which are requests to local jails or prisons to hold the individuals past their release date. The daily update on January 26 contains the highest numbers so far, with 956 arrests and 554 detainers lodged.