DENVER — The City and County of Denver on Tuesday announced it had filed suit against the Trump administration for what it called “its unlawful and unconstitutional threats” to withhold federal funding over Denver’s policies limiting cooperation with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The joint lawsuit, filed last week in conjunction with nearly 50 other jurisdictions from across the country in U.S. District Court in northern California, alleges the Trump administration has asserted “an unprecedented and unlawful interpretation of the federal government’s authority to commandeer local government resources.”
The lawsuit contends that executive orders issued by President Donald Trump earlier this year to ramp mass deportations nationwide, including withholding federal funds from so-called “sanctuary cities” that do not comply with his directives, “fly in the face of foundational constitutional principles … [and] violate plain statutory language and numerous court orders.”
The directives by the Trump administration, the lawsuit argues, “force local governments that have made deliberate decisions about how to make their communities safer and where to spend their own resources into an impossible choice—to relinquish their autonomy and independence and abandon their valid laws and policies, or face the sudden and devastating loss of federal funding and civil and criminal enforcement actions.”
Denver7 has obtained a copy of the lawsuit, which you can read in the embed below.
In announcing the lawsuit, City of Denver officials said federal courts have sided with jurisdictions who sued the Trump administration during his first term in office for trying to withhold federal funding if they did not comply with his directives for immigration enforcement.
While Denver has never officially called itself a sanctuary city — a phrase city officials say has no official definition — Trump labeled it as one in 2017 when he asked “sanctuary cities” help ICE in its immigration crackdown.
In response, then-Mayor Michael Hancock signed an executive order that created a legal defense fund for people threatened with removal or who were in the process of those proceedings taking place, and ordered the Denver Sheriff Department, which operates the city's jail, not to seek federal funding that required the department to gather and release information about a person’s immigration or citizenship status.
In that order, Hancock called Denver a "safe and welcoming city" but never used the word "sanctuary.”
After Trump signed several executive orders earlier this year, Denver Mayor Mike Johnston laid out a four-part plan for how Denver would respond to the mass deportations Trump has promised during his second administration. The mayor told Denver7 that his four-part plan ensures the city follows the law and upholds its values.
Per the plan, the city will cooperate with ICE and other federal law enforcement when it comes to violent criminals. The mayor said city officials will provide basic information, such as when someone who ICE is interested in will be released from jail.
But Johnston said that when it comes to non-violent immigrants, Denver police will only provide limited support to ICE and other federal law enforcement agencies. The mayor’s plan noted this support “will be determined on a case-by-case basis, but city police will only respond to requests to protect public safety and keep the peace.”
Johnston said Denver police will not be involved in arresting non-criminal immigrants.
“Time and time again, Denver has showed that we enforce the law without fear or favor and work with federal authorities to bring criminals to justice,” Johnston in a statement Tuesday. “We will continue to stand up for what Denverites believe in and fight for the federal funding that our residents deserve.”
- Denver7 Investigates went in-depth to look at how other Colorado agencies respond to ICE detainers. View our in-depth reporting in the video player below:
This most recent lawsuit is Denver’s fourth against the Trump administration.
In May, Denver joined dozens of jurisdictions in suing the Trump administration over threats to withhold millions of dollars in federal grant money earmarked for critical transportation infrastructure for not aligning with the president’s directives on immigration enforcement or diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs.
That same month, Denver joined Chicago and Pima County, Ariz., in filing a suit against the Trump administration to get back $24 million in FEMA grants the city was promised to offset the costs of sheltering new immigrants between 2022 and 2024.
City officials filed a third lawsuit against the administration to preserve crucial funding used to detect and prevent large-scale security threats, which they said the Trump administration reinstated after the lawsuit’s filing.
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