Colorado Court of Appeals Overturns Teller County Sheriff's Office Immigration Decision

Lina Portman3 days ago

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The Colorado Court of Appeals on Wednesday overturned a ruling that Teller County sheriff's deputies were authorized to act as federal immigration agents to detain people in the country illegally.

A group of Teller County residents and the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado first sued Teller County Sheriff Jason Mikesell in 2019 over the agency's agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which trains and licenses deputies to enforce federal immigration laws.

Teller County District Court Judge Scott Sells ruled in favor of the sheriff in February 2023, finding that the 287(g) agreement did not violate state law.

But the appeals court rejected Sells' ruling that deputies were subject to federal law only when acting as immigration agents and found that Congress did not intend to override state laws with the ICE agreements.

Under state law, “…any portion of the TCSO Agreement purporting to authorize TCSO officers to arrest or detain individuals based on civil immigration detentions is invalid,” the court wrote in a summary released Wednesday.

In a statement, ACLU officials welcomed the appeals court's decision.

“Local law enforcement has no right to act like federal immigration agents and hold immigrants in jail, 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,” said Tim Macdonald, legal director for the ACLU of Colorado.

This is the first case in the country where a sheriff has been found to have violated state law by detaining people under a 287(g) agreement, according to the ACLU.

The case will return to the district court to determine whether to grant a permanent injunction, as requested by the ACLU.

The Teller County Sheriff's Office could not immediately be reached for comment Wednesday.

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