HB26-1276 faces hearing today as Rep. Slaugh warns sanctuary policies could cut federal jail funding

By Rep. Scott Slaugh | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice

Editor’s update: HB26-1276 is scheduled to be heard today at 1:30 p.m. in the House Finance Committee (HCR 0112). Readers can listen to the hearing live here or sign up to testify here.

Since the year 2000, by Act of Congress the federal Department of Justice’s has annually reimbursed state prisons and thousands of local county jails across the nation for the documented costs of incarcerating convicted criminal aliens –persons not lawfully present in the United States and convicted of a felony crime or two misdemeanors under a state’s criminal code. That decades-old federal program is called the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program, or simply, “SCAAP.”  

From its inception the federal SCAAP program has been an open acknowledgment by the United States Congress of federal responsibility for the presence of large numbers of criminal aliens in our country as a result of literally decades of inadequate border security. 

Cumulatively, the program has awarded Colorado’s state and local correctional facilities over $125,000,000. 

The 2024 awards totaled over $4 million, with amounts varying recently from $1,224 to Mesa County to a high of $300,701 to Adams County. The State of Colorado Department of Corrections in 2024 applied for and received $1,388,784 as reimbursement for incarcerating several hundred criminal alien felons.  

Every front-range county but Denver was represented in the FY2024 awards — and even Denver, which was the first county to officially and formally declare itself a “Sanctuary” community back around 2012, applied for and received SCAAP funding as recently as 2016. 

The County of Boulder, widely considered a champion of sanctuary policies, has been a consistent SCAAP applicant nearly every year the program has existed. Reimbursement dollars are calculated using a formula based on the percentage of the manpower costs of operating the jail.

Two decades ago in 2006, Republican Governor Bill Owens called a Special Session of the General Assembly to tackle the growing problem of illegal immigration. The House’s Democrat majority and the Senate’s Republican majority enacted nearly a dozen sensible bills – all with bipartisan votes. Unfortunately, that 2006 bipartisan harmony did not last long. 

As soon as the “progressive” Democrats gained a majority in both chambers of the legislature, they began repealing and amending state laws to create “Sanctuary” policies of escalating scope. Over the decade since 2016, not one of those new “sanctuary” laws has passed with bipartisan votes. Recent Republican-sponsored bills seeking to repeal sanctuary laws, such as Rep. Richard Holtorf’s HB 1128 in the 2024 session, were killed in committees on straight party-line votes.

In the present 2026 session of the legislature, a new Democrat bill, HB26-1276, aims to drive nails into the coffin of federal immigration enforcement in Colorado. It forbids any cooperation with federal immigration law enforcement and enacts additional roadblocks to cooperation.

Consequently, soon we will very likely see millions of federal reimbursement dollars vanish. The real world consequence is that thousands of convicted criminal aliens will be recycled back into Colorado communities even more rapidly than before. 

Despite Colorado Democrats’ militant “welcome wagon” approach to illegal migration, a dozen of Colorado’s elected county sheriffs continue to participate in the SCAAP reimbursement program. Back in 2004, thirty-nine county sheriffs applied for and received federal SCAAP reimbursements, but in 2024, only seventeen counties applied. In 2024, collectively, those seventeen county jails received reimbursements for over one thousand criminal aliens serving sentences in county jails. 

Oddly, and hypocritically, the Colorado state Department of Corrections continues to annually seek federal reimbursement dollars despite the state government’s sanctuary laws. 

Those annual federal reimbursement dollars may soon vanish. Last month on March 15, 2026,  a committee in the United States Senate heard expert testimony on the costs and consequences of state “sanctuary” policies across the nation. That testimony endorsed a February 2024 Executive Order by President Trump, which aims to halt federal taxpayer dollars going to states enforcing “Sanctuary” laws. 

Although ending annual SCAAP reimbursement grants requires a change in federal law, states should recognize that the likelihood of that happening is high.  

Ending all annual SCAAP reimbursement awards would be a major loss to Colorado for a second reason besides the loss of federal dollars flowing to dozens of local county sheriffs. 

The annual SCAAP reports are the only source of authoritative public data accessible to citizens on the number of criminal aliens in Colorado jails – criminal aliens who, thanks to Colorado’s Sanctuary laws, will soon be released back into Colorado communities instead of being examined for possible deportation. The numbers vary each year, but the annual total combined statewide number has always been above 2,000.

A decade ago, in 2016, thirty-three county sheriffs all across Colorado applied for reimbursement for approximately 1,220 criminal alien inmates and the state Department of Corrections received $2,077,720 for incarcerating approximately 1,400 criminal alien inmates. 

Those 2016 federal reports revealed a total of over 2,600 criminal aliens in the state’s jails and state prisons. 

What is the number in 2026? 

The Democrat-controlled state legislature doesn’t want to know, and without those annual SCAAP incarceration numbers, citizens will have to guess.  

By 2023 the number of county sheriffs applying for SCAAP federal reimbursement funds had shrunk to only seventeen, but nine of those counties were “front-line” counties representing almost half of the state’s total population. Thus, annual SCAAP reimbursement funding continues to play a significant role in state law enforcement. 

If Congress acts to terminate SCAAP eligibility for jurisdictions operating under statewide Sanctuary restrictions, NOT county-enacted laws, that funding will vanish — and with it, the data on the number of criminal aliens being released annually into Colorado communities instead of being subject to possible deportation.  

It is no accident that the intensity – dare we say the ferocity– of “progressive” opposition to federal immigration law enforcement has grown since “border control” became a reality in 2025 and not a forgotten relic.  For decades in Colorado, deported criminal aliens often showed up again in Colorado courts within a year or two. 

After border control became a reality under President Trump in 2025, deportation means something very concrete. That is why open borders activists in every state are passionately trying to erect new barriers to federal immigration law enforcement. 

The federal SCAAP program is about reimbursing the costs of incarceration; the social costs of criminal alien crime has never been calculated. 

No state agency and no committee of the legislature has tried to calculate the costs to families, small businesses and communities of the new crimes committed by the 2,600 criminal aliens who were serving time in state and county jails in 2016 and then released back into Colorado communities instead of being examined for possible deportation.

Colorado’s statewide sanctuary policies have been enacted into law with no real price tag, and in “blue-state” Colorado, the state budget never attempts to calculate or even acknowledge the hidden costs.  A current example is the ridiculously low “Fiscal Note” attached to a new bill, HB26-1276, a 2026 declaration of war by the Colorado Democrat Party against all federal immigration law enforcement.

Sadly, that arrogant and dangerous 2026 proposal is reminiscent of the mid-1800’s enactment of “interposition” laws to “nullify” federal fugitive slave laws in South Carolina and other Southern states. That decades-long incitement to insurrection led to the Civil War. This new 2026 “Sanctuary” bill is all-too typical of the pervasive state of denial in which Colorado’s “progressive” Democrats now live.

Scott Slaugh is a Republican member of the Colorado House of Representatives representing House District 64. Appointed to the seat in September 2025, he represents communities in Larimer and Weld counties. A military veteran and small business owner, Slaugh serves his first term in the Colorado General Assembly.

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.