ICE officials have subpoenaed Denver City law enforcement in order to obtain information on illegal immigrants that the City has withheld as part of its sanctuary law.
“In the past, we had full support. We collaborated in the interest of public safety,” Henry Lucero, deputy executive associate director for ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations, said.
The disagreement between ICE and Denver officials came after ICE sought information on four individuals, three Mexicans and one Honduran, who were in custody in Denver on criminal charges. The city refused to cooperate with ICE officials and hand over information regarding their whereabouts and their release dates.
“This is a drastic change, and one ICE is forced to do,” he said, adding that it “puts other agencies on notice that we don’t want this to happen. We want to protect the public.”
Denver officials, however, denied withholding the information from the agency on Thursday.
“We are reviewing the administrative subpoenas from ICE, which were not issued by a court of law,” said Theresa Marchetta, the director of strategic communications with the mayor’s office. “We want to be very clear that our immigration ordinance fully complies with federal law.”
“ICE officials contacted Denver to request jail release notifications involving four inmates,” Luby said. “Contrary to what ICE is saying, we honored three of those requests for the three inmates released at that time. We will honor the request for the fourth inmate when he is released.”
ICE officials believe they can hold sanctuary cities that are refusing to share vital information accountable under the Immigration and Nationality Act and, in case both law enforcement agencies can’t come to an agreement, have a federal judge decide.
Chad Sublet, Senior Counsel to the Department of Safety in Denver, however, disqualified ICE’s request, stating that it was not a case for law enforcement but instead an alleged violation of civil immigration law, Time reported.
“The documents appear to be a request for information related to alleged violations of civil immigration law,” Sublet continued. “Based on these facts, we are denying your request.”
He concluded the subpoenas could be “viewed as an effort to intimidate officers into help enforcing civil immigration law.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
