By Lucas Brady Woods | KUNC
Several Colorado lawmakers are trying to create new protections for the state’s immigrants against hardline deportation policies under the Trump administration.
“People are scared and afraid. And I understand that, and I respect it, because I’ve also got a little pit of anxiety in my stomach too,” said Sen. Julie Gonzales of Denver. “We drafted a lot of this policy in response to the actual tactics that we have seen be utilized by ICE now under the second Trump administration.”
Gonzales and a group of other Democrats, Sen. Mike Weissman of Aurora, Rep. Lorena Garcia of Adams County and Rep. Elizabeth Velasco of Glenwood Springs, introduced a long-awaited piece of legislation Friday that would limit local cooperation with federal immigration authorities, like Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.
The proposal, Senate Bill 25-276, comes in the wake of federal immigration raids in the Denver metro several weeks ago and the high-profile detainment of local immigrant rights activist Jeanette Vizguerra.