By John Fabbricatore | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice
The City and County of Denver has been an unofficial “sanctuary” for illegal immigrants for decades, but its status as an official sanctuary city—protecting criminal aliens from arrest and deportation—dates back to 2013.
That much is well known and understood by everyone in Colorado with an interest in the “sanctuary issue.”
But what is not well understood across Colorado today is that now, the entire state of Colorado – all 64 counties – is a “sanctuary state” because of legislation enacted by Democrat majorities in both chambers of the state legislature.
The big difference in public safety is that in 2025, across Colorado’s 64 counties, hundreds of criminal aliens convicted under state law are being released into communities instead of being deported as required by long-established federal immigration law.
That policy started in Denver and continues to be defended by Denver’s current mayor, Michael Johnston.
Under new state laws enacted in the last few years by Democrat majorities in the state legislature, all the state’s county sheriffs are prohibited by statute from communicating jail inmate information to the federal immigration law enforcement agency, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) division of the Department of Homeland Security.
Efforts by Republican lawmakers in the state legislature to repeal those statutory restrictions have been blocked by party-line votes in legislative committees.
Denver remains the fountainhead and main enforcement arm of the Democrat Party’s passionate obstruction of cooperative law enforcement policies affecting illegal aliens – and especially the thousands of criminal aliens arrested and incarcerated annually in Colorado’s county jails and state correctional facilities.
This is all widely understood in Colorado’s political circles. What is not well understood is the costs of “sanctuary policies” to the citizens, families, and taxpayers of not only Denver but millions of Coloradans statewide.
Colorado Representative Gabe Evans recently questioned Denver Mayor Johnston during a House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform investigation into sanctuary jurisdictions.
During the session, Rep. Evans focused on Denver’s homicide rate and asked a pointed question: “Do you know how many of those 65 to 71 homicides were committed by individuals unlawfully present in the country?”
Mayor Johnston did not provide a direct answer. Instead, he stated, “What I can tell you is that Denver remains focused on reducing crime overall, and our law enforcement officers prioritize cases based on criminal behavior, not immigration status.”
Evans sharply criticized the Denver Police Department’s policy prohibiting officers from inquiring about an individual’s immigration status. He further alleged that Denver police are instructed to leave the “place of origin” section blank on FBI fingerprint cards.
It has also been noted that, in some cases, officers reportedly use “XX” instead of the correct two-letter code for a person’s place of birth— a deliberate manipulation of data.
Johnston admitted Denver doesn’t track immigration status, meaning there’s no way to know how many violent crimes involve illegal immigrants—a core issue with the city’s sanctuary policies.
Fortunately, there does exist adequate real-world data on the number of criminal aliens who are convicted of serious crimes and then serve jail terms in dozens of Colorado counties and prison terms in the state’s Department of Corrections.
That data exists in the records of a federal government cost-reimbursement program for local jails and state prison facilities, a program administered by the United States Department of Justice, the “State Criminal Alien Assistance Program,” or SCAAP.
Since 2005, federal SCAAP reports have tracked reimbursements to all 50 state correctional systems and thousands of county jails. The dollar amounts of annual reimbursement awards are published online by the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) of the federal Department of Justice.
The annual SCAAP reports for Colorado from 2005 onwards tell the story of Colorado’s shameful surrender to “sanctuary policies.” Denver’s Democrat mayors, from Hickenlooper to Johnston, have led and championed that shameful parade.
In the 2005 SCAAP report, Denver requested and received a federal taxpayer reimbursement of $950,665, and Colorado’s Department of Corrections requested and was awarded $2,358,707. Twenty-one other Colorado counties were awarded amounts ranging from $1,967 to Bent County at the low end to $267,084 to Boulder County and $389,607 to Arapahoe County at the high end.
In 2005, the total federal SCAAP reimbursements to Colorado county jails and the state prison system was $5,009,986.
By contrast, in neighboring Arizona in 2005, correctional institutions received $14,370,489, with eleven of fourteen counties participating. That same year, California’s penal institutions received a whopping $121,110,638 in SCAAP reimbursements — over 20 times the amount provided to Colorado’s correctional institutions.
Did California in 2005 have twenty times as many criminal aliens in jail, or did California do a more thorough job of reporting all of its incarcerated criminal aliens?
In Colorado’s most recent SCAAP report for federal fiscal year 2024, only 17 counties and the state Department of Corrections applied for federal reimbursements. The state’s counties received a total of $2,658,412, and the state DOC received $1,388,784, which is a total of $4,047,196 statewide.
Oddly, the amount is LESS than the 2005 state total of $5,009,986. A fair question is – Why?
Part of the answer is that the City of Denver is missing from the most recent 2024 SCAAP reimbursement total. Denver did not apply for reimbursement, and in fact, there is no record of a Denver SCAAP reimbursement in any year since 2016.
What’s going on here? Does Denver no longer have criminal aliens in its jails?
Why doesn’t Denver want to have federal reimbursement for those costs?
If the number of criminal aliens in Denver’s jails had not increased but merely remained the same each year from 2015 through 2024, the city’s municipal budget would have been enriched by federal dollars in the approximate amount of 10 x $960,655 — or over 9.6 million dollars.
So, why doesn’t the mayor of Denver seek federal reimbursement dollars for the costs imposed by the substantial number of criminal aliens annually?
Is it because Denver’s progressives do not want to publicly acknowledge the significant number of criminal aliens who have been convicted of crimes and sentenced to jail in Denver?
Citizens and lawmakers statewide would be justified in asking why Denver’s mayor, and presumably, the city manager and city council, are refusing to seek the federal SCAAP reimbursement, which has been available in federal law for over two decades.
Dozens of other major cities in America – including numerous very liberal counties in California, such as Sacramento, Marin, Monterey and Fresno – continue to apply for and receive federal SCAAP dollars despite their well-known Sanctuary policies.
But, not Denver? Why?
In March of 2025, Denver’s mayor and the progressive majority in the Colorado state legislature no longer had the option of changing course and applying for federal SCAAP dollars. Why?
Because in February, President Trump’s appointees in the Department of Justice announced that “sanctuary” states and cities are no longer eligible to apply for SCAAP reimbursements. Yes, indeed: elections have consequences.
This new Trump administration policy means that about 20 Colorado counties which have been routinely applying for and receiving federal reimbursement dollars since 2005 are now out of luck thanks to the sanctuary policies adopted by the “progressive majority” in the Colorado General Assembly.
The $1,388,784 federal transfer, which the Governor’s Department of Corrections budget received in 2024, will not be available in 2025 or any other year unless Colorado repeals its radical “Sanctuary State” policies.
In February of 2024, a bill in the Colorado General Assembly sponsored by a Republican lawmaker, Richard Holtorf, was killed in a house committee on a party-line vote, and in the current 2025 legislative session, two bills seeking modifications in the state’s sanctuary laws were also killed in committee by the Democrat majority.
Ordinarily, this million-dollar wake-up call might be just a small blip on Colorado’s 2026 budget radar. But with the state already facing a potential billion-dollar deficit, the sanctuary boondoggle might finally get the attention it deserves.
Editor’s note: Opinions expressed in commentary pieces are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the management of the Rocky Mountain Voice, but even so we support the constitutional right of the author to express those opinions.