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07_31_25MMHeadlinenews Ainsley Coogan
Colorado lawmakers sue ICE
Two Colorado lawmakers are suing Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, alleging that ICE has illegally denied congressional access to its detention facilities.
U.S. Representatives Jason Crow and Joe Neguse, both of them Democrats, filed the federal lawsuit in Washington yesterday. They allege that ICE has been in violation of federal law by denying members of Congress access to the detention centers for unannounced visits.
ICE has set a new policy that requires seven days’ notice before any congressional visit, according to the Denver Post. Representative Crow was recently denied entry to the ICE facility in Aurora when he attempted an unannounced visit earlier this month.
10 other Democratic lawmakers say they have had similar experiences, as ICE has ramped up the Trump administration policy of mass deportation of immigrants.
Neguse, who represents Colorado’s Second Congressional District, said that denying a member of Congress access to an ICE facility is a blatant disregard for the law by the Trump administration.
Sheriff says CSP and local police illegally shared info with ICE
At the same time, the Mesa County Sheriff says that Colorado State Patrol and local police illegally shared information with ICE.
That allegation is from Sheriff Todd Rowell’s administrative review of a case involving a Utah college student who was pulled over on Interstate 70 in June, and ended up detained by ICE for more than two weeks.
The Sheriff’s review says after an investigator pulled over Caroline Dias Goncalves, who came to the United States from her native Brazil when she was seven, he illegally shared information about her with ICE and Homeland Security agents, who used the information to arrest the nineteen-year-old student.
The Denver Post says Goncalves had overstayed a tourist visa, and that she and her family have a pending application for asylum.
State attorney general Phil Weiser sued the investigator, Alex Zwinck, last week, for illegally sharing that information.
$954 million projected state budget deficit
Colorado is facing a nearly one-billion dollar budget shortfall because of the federal tax bill Trump signed into law.
State budget director Mark Ferrandino told legislative leadership yesterday that the longer they wait to do something about the new deficit in the budget, the deeper the budget cuts they’ll have to make are going to be.
Lawmakers are already expected to meet in an August special session to find ways to resolve the budget shortfalls the state faces, because of the federal tax bill.
The state budget that went into effect on July 1st is already out of balance because of the new tax bill, which cut $4.5 trillion in taxes nationwide, slashed Medicaid, and shifted new costs to state governments. All four of Colorado’s Republican House members voted in favor of that bill, while Colorado democrats all voted against it.
The Denver Post says that rebalancing the state budget will require significant cuts and state officials have asked departments to stop any maintenance they’ve scheduled but haven’t yet paid for. Polis’ office earlier had told state agencies to prepare for 2.5% cuts next year, and his team has now asked how much of that savings they can realize immediately.
State Senator Jeff Bridges, who chairs the Joint Budget Committee, said the cuts that are coming will be painful.
