A Denver legislation agency accused the Garfield County Sheriff’s Workplace on Thursday of illegally coordinating the arrest and switch of an immigrant with out correct authorized standing final 12 months.
The nonprofit legislation agency, In the direction of Justice, despatched a cease-and-desist letter to Sheriff Lou Vallario after months of allegations raised by Glenwood Springs-based advocacy group Voces Unidas. That group mentioned Vallario had sidestepped state legislation to cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in transferring immigrants into ICE custody.
The letter asks the Western Slope county’s sheriff to cease that observe, in addition to any prohibited information-sharing with federal immigration authorities.
“Sheriff Valerio and different legislation enforcement throughout the state searching for to collaborate with ICE should know that they aren’t above the legislation,” In the direction of Justice govt director David Seligman mentioned in a press release.
Sheriff’s workplace spokeswoman Shannon Stowe mentioned in an electronic mail that she hadn’t but seen In the direction of Justice’s letter. She pointed to a Feb. 7, 2025, assertion from Vallario, by which he wrote that he works “with ALL legislation enforcement businesses, from native to worldwide, to the diploma I legally can.”
“As it’s a authorized matter, it’s going to must be reviewed by the County Legal professional’s Workplace earlier than any motion is taken,” Stowe wrote.
Voces Unidas and In the direction of Justice accused a Garfield County deputy and an ICE agent of arresting an immigrant outdoors of a Walmart final June. The deputy then drove the person from Glenwood Springs to the city of De Beque, the organizations mentioned, the place he was turned over to ICE custody.
Alex Sánchez of Voces Unidas and Toree Lindblad of In the direction of Justice mentioned the person had no federal or state felony costs, and he was later deported from a detention middle in Aurora.
The incident report, which is included within the letter, states that the ICE agent was a part of a joint process pressure with the sheriff’s workplace. The deputy helped transport the person into the custody of “ERO,” or Enforcement and Removing Operations, which is the department of ICE that handles civil immigration and deportations.
5 different deputies had been current on the preliminary arrest, In the direction of Justice alleged.
Colorado legislation broadly prohibits native legislation enforcement from collaborating in civil immigration enforcement actions, and it additionally blocks any sharing of private data with ICE outdoors of felony probes.
Stowe didn’t instantly reply to a request for touch upon the Walmart arrest.
The letter from In the direction of Justice additionally accuses the sheriff’s workplace of permitting ICE brokers into the native jail to select up immigrants earlier than they’re launched. Sánchez mentioned his group had documented 9 instances of in-custody transfers, and In the direction of Justice launched a press release from a lady who mentioned she’d exited a jail toilet after paying her bail, solely to discover a sheriff’s deputy ready with an ICE agent.
However that observe might not violate state legislation. Colorado legislation prohibits jails from holding folks at ICE’s request, or from holding them longer than needed to permit ICE to come back and decide them up.
Nonetheless, it’s not unlawful for ICE to arrest somebody in a jail or for a jail to alert the company that an immigrant is about to be launched.
Final 12 months, Colorado lawmakers briefly debated blocking ICE brokers from getting into nonpublic areas of jails. Emails obtained by Voces Unidas in a public data request present Vallario criticizing that provision as harmful and saying he would “not comply” with that a part of the invoice, if it had been handed.
However the provision was later stripped from the invoice.
Vallario instructed JHB final 12 months that he didn’t delay immigrants’ releases and that he was certain by state legislation. In his assertion final 12 months, Vallario wrote that people who find themselves eligible for launch should be let out from jail custody inside six hours.
“Nonetheless, native ICE brokers overview our public jail web site that reveals the standing of everybody in jail,” he wrote. “If ICE has an curiosity in detaining one, or extra of them due to the seriousness of their crimes, they notify the jail and ask that we allow them to know when that particular person of curiosity goes to be launched, and we do.”
The emails obtained by Voces Unidas additionally present Vallario criticizing state Rep. Elizabeth Velasco, a Glenwood Springs Democrat who sponsored final 12 months’s invoice proposing to additional restrict ICE cooperation by state and native officers.
In a June electronic mail to different legislation enforcement officers, Vallario despatched an image of Velasco carrying an anti-ICE signal, and he referred to as her a “POS.”