Colorado lawmakers rejected a bill Tuesday that would have required state and local police to intervene when federal immigration agents use excessive force.
The bill would have also prohibited state and local police officers from hiding their identities, subjected federal officers to state criminal and civil penalties and required police officers to attend training on immigration enforcement.
Two Democrats — Rep. Chad Clifford of Centennial and Rep. Cecelia Espenoza of Denver — joined the Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee to kill House Bill 1275 after hours of testimony against it from police chiefs.
An original version of the bill, sponsored by Democrats Rep. Meg Froelich of Englewood, Rep. Yara Zokaie of Fort Collins, Sen. Mike Weissman of Aurora and Sen. Iman Jodeh of Aurora, would also have prevented federal immigration agents from becoming certified police officers in Colorado, although that section was watered down before the committee voted late Tuesday.
The bill is one of three this session brought by Democrats attempting to regulate U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the state in the wake of violence at the hands of federal immigration agents in Minnesota.
Clifford said existing law already requires police to intervene in excessive force incidents and prevents police officers from cooperating with ICE. He’s hearing from constituents upset about his “no” vote, who he said do not understand what the bill would and wouldn’t do. It would not, for example, have required ICE agents to show their faces.
“People want us to regulate ICE, and we can’t do it,” he said. “And the thing that’s most upsetting to me is that this bill left language in continually and then put out on the internet like we could do it, and now people think we could regulate ICE and we didn’t.”
“That’s not something we have the authority to do,” he said.
Espenoza did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday. At the hearing Tuesday, she said the public was “misinterpreting” the bill.
“If they think that by passage of (the bill) they will have protection to know who those ICE officers are, they’re going to be mistaken,” she said. “This bill doesn’t do that.”
The bill’s failure highlights the difficulty states are facing as they try to push back against how the federal government is enforcing its mass deportation policy.
California’s mask ban for federal agents was shot down by a federal judge last month, but the ruling signaled a ban would be lawful if it applied to all law enforcement officers, not just federal ones.
Colorado’s bill faced significant criticism from police chiefs across the state, including Deputy Chief Todd Reeves with Arvada police, who said the proposed legislation would make recruitment and hiring more difficult, even as departments already struggle with staffing.
“We lose officers out of Colorado that have gone to other states to perform their jobs because of the difficulties and liabilities that are continually coming in our direction,” Reeves testified.
Durango Police Chief Brice Current, who faced backlash after protesters clashed with ICE agents in October, said the bill would put officers “in an impossible position” if expected to intervene as federal officers operate under different use-of-force standards.
“They may interfere with a lawful federal operation,” Current said. “If they don’t, they could face criminal charges and lose their certification.”
He called the situation where protesters surrounded an ICE facility in Durango and locked the gates with chains a “no-win situation,” explaining that state law prohibited local police officers from removing the protesters.
“I’m probably one of the only chiefs who has filed a complaint,” Current said, who asked for a review by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation and FBI after an agent threw a 57-year-old woman to the ground. “Even a chief of police faces substantial risk when we do that, but we are still going to do the right thing.”
Zokaie, one of the sponsors of the bill, said she was surprised it failed with two “no” votes from Democrats.
“I am completely heartbroken that the words of some of our officers outweighed the words of our community who showed up begging us to do something at a time that they are being targeted,” she said. “Their rights are being violated and they are being killed.”
Other immigration bills still pending
Two other immigration bills are still making their way through the Colorado Capitol.
Before voting down House Bill 1275, the House Judiciary Committee voted in favor of House Bill 1276.
That bill would prohibit state and local government agencies from transporting people detained by ICE for deportation purposes. That includes airports, which would be prohibited from contracting a commercial airline that transports detainees. It would expand state and local inspection authority of detention centers and require state and local law enforcement agencies to submit reports to Colorado Department of Public Safety after they work with the feds.
The bill would also expand on the law passed last year that prohibits state officials from sharing personal identifying information with federal immigration authorities unless it is being used in a criminal case. It would prohibit state and local agencies, not just individual officials, from sharing the information. State agencies would have to publish ICE subpoenas they receive, and state and local agencies that comply with subpoenas would have to alert individuals that their information has been shared with ICE.
The subpoena measures are a reaction to a lawsuit brought against Gov. Jared Polis in June by Scott Moss, the former director of the Division of Labor Standards and Statistics at Colorado’s Department of Labor, who alleged Polis directed him to comply with an immigration subpoena from ICE requesting the personal information of 35 people.
The judge in that case has so far sided with Moss, blocking Polis from ordering Moss, but not the agency, to hand over the information. After months of defending his attempted compliance with the subpoena, Polis recently reversed his position and asked the judge to permanently block the release of the information and end the case.
Senate Bill 5, which would give people the ability to file civil lawsuits against federal immigration officials in state court for alleged constitutional violations, passed the Senate last month on a party-line vote.
Illinois passed a similar law last year that has drawn a lawsuit from the Trump administration.
KUNC Reporter Lucas Brady Woods contributed to this report.
This story previously appeared in the Colorado Sun.
Copyright 2026 High Plains Public Radio
