Data sharing by state agencies erodes trust and violates Colorado law

Voces Unidas has been following the lawsuit brought against Gov. Polis suggesting that he directed state employees to turn over personal data of 35 sponsors of unaccompanied immigrant children in Colorado to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in violation of state law.

According to the lawsuit, ICE wanted the email addresses, phone numbers, residential addresses, and names of sponsors – presumably to target for deportation – which Gov. Polis directed employees of the state’s department of labor to provide. None of the sponsors were aware that their information was being or is going to be shared with federal authorities until the action was made public by a whistleblower in the labor department.

Videos have surfaced showing ICE agents on the Western Slope and in other parts of the country using "welfare checks" as a pretext to enter people's homes. The impact on immigrant families and innocent bystanders is severe.

We are also aware of another request for similar data from the agency that administers Medicaid in Colorado that could be used to target the immigrant community. 

We have recently learned that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the federal agency that administers the nation’s health program for low-income Americans, has been working to gather data from the Colorado Dept. of Health Care Policy and Financing, with the intent to share personal information of Medicaid enrollees with the Department of Homeland Security in support of the Trump administration’s deportation push. That data includes the immigration status of tens of thousands of people in Colorado that the administration is likely to use to ramp up its deportation efforts.

Voces Unidas is calling on Gov. Polis and other state officials to cease any and all cooperation with these federal agency requests, in accordance with state law. Beyond the prevailing legal ramifications, the impacts to community-government trust when an elected official volunteers to share data that can lead to deportation of immigrant children or people who enrolled in Medicaid will have consequences for decades to come. 

We have met with Colorado’s attorney general and state lawmakers to express our concern and make clear our intent to hold all leaders accountable to follow state law in accordance with our values.