2026 legislative session lacked courage

The 2026 Colorado Legislative Session ended on May 13. For Latino communities, it was a session defined by missed opportunities, weakened bills, and political decisions that fell short of what families needed.

Voces Unidas Action Fund was deeply engaged this session, focused on worker protections, immigrant protections and law enforcement accountability, housing stability, mobile home park protections, climate resilience, and environmental justice. These priorities came directly from what Latino communities have been saying for years through the Colorado Latino Policy Agenda: families want lower costs, better wages, affordable housing, healthcare access, stronger immigrant protections, and accountability from government.

In total, Voces Unidas took positions on more than 50 pieces of legislation. Of the bills we opposed, eight were stopped and one, SB26-121, was signed into law. Of the measures we supported, 23 were signed into law, six were vetoed and 17 never made it out of the process. See bill tracker below.

The 2026 session also took place under real fiscal pressure. Colorado faced another difficult budget year, shaped by the end of federal COVID relief funds, Medicaid growth, criminal justice costs, federal tax changes that reduced state revenue, and TABOR limits. That played a major role. But fiscal pressure cannot become an excuse for weakening protections or balancing budgets off the backs of working families. Latinos lose every time the federal government or state government treats workers, renters, patients, and immigrants as the easiest place to cut.

We did see important wins. But even the wins showed how hard it is to pass bold policy when too many policymakers lack the political courage to address the actual harm.

HB26-1272, the bill focused on protecting workers from extreme temperatures, which we spearheaded, was passed and signed into law yesterday. While not what workers actually need, the new law will gather data to better understand how extreme heat and cold temperatures impact workers across Colorado. It also includes education for employers and the possibility of stronger guidance from the state in future years. It is a good start — step one — toward doing right by workers who build, clean, serve, harvest, and sustain Colorado’s economy through increasingly dangerous conditions.

Other wins included housing protections. HB26-1145 strengthened water quality protections for mobile home park residents, and HB26-1224 added protections for mobile home park residents. These bills are important because too many Latino families continue to live in housing systems where clean water, safety, and accountability are treated as optional.

But those wins do not erase the broader failure of the session.

On immigrant protections, Voces Unidas supported a package of bills designed to protect families from federal abuse, law enforcement secrecy, local cooperation with ICE, and government surveillance — common-sense policies Latino communities have clearly demanded.

The result was unacceptable.

HB26-1275, which would have required basic transparency from law enforcement officers, and was inspired by the need to prevent ICE agents from concealing their identities, was killed in committee when two Democrats joined Republicans.

HB26-1276 moved forward only after being amended into a weaker bill. Voces Unidas supported the bill, but called for it to be strengthened to close the county jail-to-ICE detention loophole. That did not happen.

SB26-070, a bill designed to create statewide guardrails for license plate reader systems like Flock cameras, died on the Senate floor with the help of Democrats. Colorado still has not addressed how these systems can help ICE track people on the Western Slope and across the state.

Lastly, SB26-005, which would have created a state-level remedy when constitutional rights are violated during civil immigration enforcement, passed the legislature and was vetoed by Gov. Jared Polis.

“We are deeply disappointed in Governor Polis’ veto of SB26-005, a bill that would have given Coloradans a legal remedy when federal ICE agents violate our civil rights,” said Alex Sánchez, president and CEO of Voces Unidas, soon after the governor made his decision public.

“This veto caps one of the most disappointing legislative sessions for Latinos and immigrants in recent Colorado history — and Democrats, who control state government, are responsible," Sánchez added. "From making farmworker exploitation legal again, to blocking protections against federal agents beating people in the street, to allowing masked ICE agents to continue hiding their identities, to continuing the transfer of immigrants from county jails after minor traffic infractions, Colorado’s Latino communities deserved strong leadership. We got excuses instead.”

Voces Unidas supported the alternative bill to SB26-005, dubbed the "No Kings Act" or SB26-176, which Polis indicated in his veto letter that he would have signed that version. However, that bill was killed in committee by Senator Dylan Roberts, a Democrat.

Republican opposition to Latino priorities was predictable. All republicans opposed immigrant protections. They opposed worker protections, too. They also opposed basic accountability. And they were not shy about telling us where they stood.

But Republicans did not control the Governor’s office. Republicans did not control the House. Republicans did not control the Senate. Republicans cannot veto a bill. Republicans cannot kill a bill on their own.

Democrats hold governing power in Denver. That means when bills were watered down, killed, allowed to die, or vetoed, Democrats were responsible. To be clear, not all Democrats failed Latino communities this session. Many fought hard for our priorities and should be recognized. But too many stood with industry, corporate interests, the law enforcement lobby, or political comfort when Latino communities needed them to stand with us.

The most damaging worker protection setback was SB26-121, the agricultural overtime rollback. Voces Unidas strongly opposed the bill because it made farmworker exploitation legal again by requiring agricultural workers to work 56 hours before qualifying for overtime pay. It was introduced by Democrats. It passed the Democratic-controlled Senate. In the House, it passed by a single vote, cast by Speaker Julie McCluskie, a Democrat. Gov. Polis signed it into law.

For the first time in modern Colorado history, the state legislature proactively voted to take a right away from a specific group. Those workers are overwhelmingly Latino and immigrant.

“A vote to take rights away from farmworkers is not something Latino communities will forget,” Sánchez said at the time of the vote.

And we won't forget it.

On environmental justice, the status quo remains on the question of data centers. Voces Unidas opposed HB26-1030, a bill that would have created corporate tax giveaways for large data centers. We are glad that bill went nowhere. Colorado should not subsidize projects that strain water, energy, and land use systems while offering too little accountability to the communities that bear the costs.

But lawmakers also failed to pass SB26-102, which would have created stronger energy requirements for large-load data centers. That failure left Colorado without needed guardrails at a time when data center expansion is becoming a serious threat to energy affordability, climate resilience, and environmental justice. This fight will need to continue.

We want to thank our community and allies for their advocacy. Community members did their part. They organized. They testified. They asked for better. They demanded action.

The people closest to the harm showed more courage than many of the policymakers with the power to stop it.

Colorado Latino communities continue to demand better from state policymakers. We are asking for policies that match the scale of the harm our communities face. We are asking elected leaders to stop praising workers while weakening their rights. We are asking them to stop claiming to support immigrants while leaving families exposed to abuse. We are asking them to stop treating Latino priorities as negotiable when political pressure rises.

The question going forward is not whether politicians say they support Latino communities. The question is whether they vote that way, govern that way, and use power that way.

Voces Unidas will continue organizing, tracking legislation, holding policymakers accountable, and bringing rural Latino voices into the rooms where decisions are made.

P.S. Our 2026 Legislative Scorecard will be released next week. Stay tuned to see how each legislator performed.