During his annual State of the State address on January 9, Gov. Jared Polis stated, “I truly hope that (then) President-elect Trump and Congress can work together quickly to secure the border, stop human trafficking, and stop the illegal flow of guns and drugs.” On this he and I agree, however, to actually achieve this, we must undo the sanctuary laws that have been enacted.
I spent over two decades working for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and its predecessor agency, the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). In those years, I witnessed firsthand how cooperation between our agency and local police entities deteriorated because of the intervention of activist politicians.
I have said many times and it remains true that ICE can only effectively enforce immigration laws through collaboration with local law enforcement. This partnership has been shown to prevent individuals convicted of crimes from illegally remaining in our communities and causing further harm. However, sanctuary policies often provide a haven for gangs and other criminal elements, enabling them to commit crimes across our communities. If we are serious about stopping the illegal flow of drugs, like fentanyl, opioids, and heroin, cooperation between law enforcement is imperative.
In 2015, I included Denver Sheriff’s Department gang intelligence deputies in a criminal fugitive task force targeting transnational gangs. This partnership led to the arrest of over a dozen gang members with criminal backgrounds in our state. Sanctuary policies put an end to that collaboration between ICE and the Denver Sheriff’s Department.
Soon after, not only did Denver’s agencies not participate in our task forces, but our agents, including me, were intentionally removed from a narcotics task force. The operation, named Operation Denver Heroin Crosscheck (ODHC) was planned as a three-month operation to systematically locate and arrest ICE fugitive aliens, previously removed aliens, removable criminal aliens, and otherwise dangerous aliens at large who were involved in transnational gangs and heroin trafficking organizations in Denver.
When the then-mayor and city council members found out that ICE was working with Denver Police on this operation, they told Denver Police commanders to stop the operation. They even went so far as to remove ICE agents from the building. Instead of three months, the operation only lasted two weeks. While we were able to arrest 54 illegal aliens for heroin-related crimes, this was only a small portion of these illegal operations.
While ICE continued to remove drugs from the streets, sanctuary policies continued to put up even more roadblocks. Denver city leadership went as far as to prevent their police officers from providing backup on a federal criminal warrant brought by the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) because ICE was the agency serving it.
For us to effectively stop human trafficking and the illegal flow of guns and drugs that have come across our border and entered Colorado, he must repeal House Bill 1124. This bill, which the governor signed in 2019, prohibits local law enforcement in our state from honoring ICE detainers, prohibits the sharing of personal information with ICE, bars agreements with ICE that deputize local officers to enforce federal immigration laws, and prohibits ICE from access to inmates in state or local custody or notifying them of their release date.
The governor argues that 1124 just puts existing practice into law. If by that he means certain local governments’ sanctuary policies are now required by law, maybe he is right, but now we are unable to rectify these poor practices without reverting the law.
ICE is a critical component of this. We have seen the video of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua (TdA) terrorizing an apartment in Aurora and recently a raid of one of their parties where 41 of the 49 people arrested are in this country illegally. This gang’s ties to human trafficking, money laundering, and drug trafficking, to name a few, have been well documented and even sanctioned by our country’s treasury.
The criminal organizations under ICE’s jurisdiction are intrinsically linked to these major crimes. The DEA’s Rocky Mountain Field Division has reported that two Mexican drug cartels responsible for the majority of fentanyl entering the U.S. are operating here in Colorado.
When federal, state and local law enforcement are able to join together and cooperate, we only make the community safer; HB 1124 prevents that. The governor and legislature must repeal it to allow Colorado to be safe again. If they fail to act, we may just have to take it to the people by a ballot measure to decide.
John Fabbricatore is a retired U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field office director for Colorado and Wyoming.
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