Appeals Court Rules Colorado Sheriff's Deal with ICE Illegal

A Colorado sheriff's practice of holding undocumented immigrants in jail under an agreement with federal immigration authorities violates state law, the Colorado Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday, overturning a district judge's decision.

The ruling is the latest twist in a years-long battle between Teller County Sheriff Jason Mikesell and the American Civil Liberties Union, which sued him on behalf of five taxpayers, arguing that Colorado law prohibits the sheriff's office from detaining people charged with state crimes who are otherwise eligible for release and then turning them over to ICE agents.

The case will be sent back to a lower court, the ACLU said Wednesday.

Under the county's agreement with federal immigration authorities, called a 287(g) agreement, the sheriff's office held people living in the country illegally in jail after they posted bail.

“Today, the court made clear that this harmful, anti-immigrant practice violates Colorado law and cannot be tolerated. This is the first time in the country that a sheriff has violated state law by detaining immigrants under a 287(g) agreement with ICE,” Tim Macdonald, legal director for the ACLU of Colorado, said in a statement Wednesday.

“We brought this case to court because we are concerned about the harm the sheriff’s agreement inflicts on all Coloradans. Local law enforcement officers have no right to act as federal immigration agents and detain immigrants, especially when state law expressly prohibits them from doing so. The court’s decision sends an important message: No sheriff in Colorado is above the law,” he said.

An attorney for Mikesell could not immediately be reached Wednesday afternoon.

Attorneys for the ACLU of Colorado filed the complaint in 2019, shortly after Colorado enacted a law prohibiting state law enforcement from arresting or detaining people based on ICE documents that are not signed by a judge.

A judge ruled in 2020 that the plaintiffs lacked standing, but the Colorado Court of Appeals overturned the decision and sent the case back to district court.

In February 2023, Teller County District Court Judge Scott Sells ruled that the sheriff had the legal authority to enter into the 287(g) agreement with ICE, which allowed deputies to enforce immigration law in exchange for training.

The ACLU filed an appeal with a three-judge panel of the Colorado Court of Appeals shortly afterward.

The case, which was closely watched, had wide-ranging repercussions throughout the rest of the state. Teller County was the only county in Colorado that still had a 287(g) agreement with ICE.

In sending the case back to Sells, the appeals panel asked the judge to reconsider an earlier request by the ACLU for an injunction to end the practice of detaining undocumented immigrants at the request of ICE.