Close the loopholes that let ICE operate in the shadows

In the Western Slope, you can feel it when someone disappears. A spouse doesn’t come home. A parent doesn’t show up for pickup. A coworker never makes it to work. And suddenly everyone has questions: can we still open for lunch, are we next, who can help, who knows what happened.

People also talk about what they’re seeing on the road during their morning commute: masked, armed men in unmarked cars. Stops that don’t feel like real traffic stops. Windows broken. People dragged out of their cars. Taken away, and the rest of us are left with nothing solid—no names, no badges, no paperwork, no answers.

That’s not “enforcement.” That’s recklessness and intimidation dressed up as authority. When the government hides its identity, hides its vehicles, and hides the legal basis for using force, it stops looking like public safety and starts looking like abduction. Colorado should not accept that as normal.

Masked ICE agents tackle people on the street

And that feeling—no names, no badges, no paperwork, no answers—doesn’t stop at the roadside. Families are describing the same silence and the same lack of accountability inside the Garfield County jail, just behind different doors. We’ve been documenting this pattern in Garfield County for more than a year. In nine cases, a person was arrested on state charges, posted bond or was ordered released by a judge, and still never walked out of the jail, families report. Instead, they describe ICE agents entering the jail and deputies facilitating transfers. In other counties, ICE waits in public areas—away from the entrance or across the street—after the person is free. Garfield is claiming current law allows local jails to function as a pipeline into ICE custody from inside the jail.

Jail is one of the most controlled spaces the government operates. Doors, logs, cameras, chain of command. If something happens in a secure area, it happens because someone authorized it or tolerated it. You don’t accidentally “let federal agents inside” and move people out the back. And you don’t get to call it “procedure” when it strips people of due process.

That’s why the package of bills moving in this legislative session matters. Loopholes and gray areas are exactly where abuse lives. These bills are about strengthening what exists and closing what’s still being exploited.

HB26-1275, sponsored by Rep. Meg Froelich, Rep. Yara Zokaie, Sen. Mike Weissman, Sen. Iman Jodeh, addresses the front-end problem: identity, transparency, and accountability when law enforcement interacts with the public in Colorado. The bill would prohibit masks while interacting with the public (with certain exceptions), expand what qualifies as impersonating an officer when someone performs law-enforcement acts while concealing identity, and require training on immigration law, excessive force policies, jurisdictional limits, and the duty to intervene — including a duty to intervene to prevent a federal officer from using excessive force. It also clarifies state criminal jurisdiction over criminal conduct committed by federal law enforcement officers in Colorado.

We support HB26-1275 because Colorado should not normalize shadow policing. If you have the power to stop someone, detain them, or use force, you have the obligation to be identifiable and accountable. In 2025, 84% of Latinos in Colorado said all law enforcement operating in the state should always identify themselves, wear body cameras, and use clearly marked vehicles.

The same data shows why collaboration loopholes matter. More than half of Latinos distrust that their local police will not collaborate or share data with ICE, and almost two-thirds oppose local law enforcement working with ICE without a judicial order. When trust collapses, people stop calling 911, stop cooperating as witnesses, and stop reporting domestic violence — undermining public safety for everyone.

A different bill, HB26-1276, sponsored by Rep. Elizabeth Velasco and Rep. Lorena García, tackles the back-end problem: what happens once someone is in the pipeline, and how Colorado closes remaining collaboration loopholes while increasing oversight of detention conditions. As introduced, it strengthens transparency around task forces and subpoenas, limits state and local involvement in deportation transport, and expands inspection and enforcement authority over civil immigration detention facilities.

We are in an amend position on HB26-1276 because the bill needs one more piece to close a loophole that is hurting families on the Western Slope: ICE should only be allowed to enter a secure area of a jail with a judicial warrant. It should not matter who the sheriff is or what party they claim. A judicial warrant is the only thing that should matter. That is the clean legal line between “the government followed due process” and “the government used the back door.”

On the Western Slope, “disappearing” isn’t a metaphor. It’s what families describe when systems operate in the shadows—and Colorado can shut that down with clear rules. Lawmakers should pass HB26-1275 to stop shadow policing, and amend HB26-1276 so ICE cannot enter secure jail areas without a judicial warrant, while strengthening oversight once people are in detention in Colorado.

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