A judge told Gov. Jared Polis not to comply with an ICE subpoena. Polis’ attorneys say he still wants to.

Gov Jared Polis is still trying to find a way to comply with a federal immigration subpoena four months after a Denver judge ruled that doing so would violate Colorado law In repeated court filings including one submitted Friday Polis private attorneys have explained they intend to turn over records on businesses that employed several sponsors of unaccompanied children to U S Immigration and Customs Enforcement They ve sought a Denver judge who previously prohibited selected state employees from complying with ICE s subpoena to dismiss the affair and clear the way for them to turn over a more limited batch of records The current filings represent the second attempt by Polis to comply with the April immigration enforcement subpoena The governor s first attempt was blocked by District Court Judge A Bruce Jones in June after Jones sided with a senior state employee who d sued Polis earlier that month to stop the state from fulfilling the subpoena The employee Scott Moss argued that providing the requested records would violate state laws that limit what information can be shared with federal immigration functionaries But though Jones preliminarily sided with Moss his ruling is complicated He prohibited Polis from directing a specific division of the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment to comply with the subpoena But he noted he couldn t prevent Polis from directing others to comply with the subpoena even though Jones stated doing so would still likely violate the law The records that Polis now says he intends to turn over to ICE are in the custody of another labor department division not covered in Jones order In an email Tuesday Polis spokeswoman Shelby Wieman declined to comment on the scenario or why Polis is still seeking to provide records to ICE She pointed to the administration s newest legal filings The administration has previously reported it desired to aid ICE s efforts to check on unaccompanied minors without legal status though the governor s office has not provided any evidence that it has sought assurances that ICE wasn t seeking the information purely for immigration enforcement efforts David Seligman whose law firm has supported the development criticized the governor s decision to seek the lawsuit s dismissal while indicating his intention to turn over records to ICE While ICE wrote that it desired detailed employment records so it could check on the well-being of unaccompanied children Seligman and Moss the employee who brought the lawsuit have argued that the agency only wants the information so it can arrest and deport the children s sponsors It is absolutely absurd that this governor would be going out of his way to comply with and cooperate with ICE in light of everything that we re seeing right now Seligman stated Moss has since left the department and Polis lawyers now argue that no one associated with the episode has a legal standing to challenge compliance with the subpoena They ve also argued that they can turn over the records because the employers addresses and contact information can be revealed online The records are only part of the broader swath of personal details that ICE initially requested and they cover only six of the sponsors for which ICE first sought records The sponsors are typically family members of children without legal status who care for the minors while their immigration cases proceed The administration has similarly notified ICE agents that it intends to comply with part of the subpoena once the lawsuit is concluded In a July email Joe Barela the head of the Department of Labor and Employment wrote to a special agent in ICE s investigative branch that the agency planned to provide your office with the names and contact information for those employers The labor department has already complied with three ICE subpoenas this year including in one erroneous occurrence that apparently ran afoul of state law Jones must now rule on whether to dismiss the lawsuit or let it proceed Between June and early September Recht Kornfeld the private law firm Polis hired to represent him in the lawsuit has billed the state for more than according to records obtained by The Denver Post through a society records request The Colorado Attorney General s Office has revealed it was unable to represent Polis because of legal advice it provided to the governor related to complying with the subpoena The office has declined to characterize the nature of that advice The subpoena was sent to the state labor department in April as part of what ICE described as essentially a welfare check of unaccompanied minors in the state The subpoena sought employment and personal records for the children s sponsors Initially administration agents decided not to comply with the subpoena because of the state s laws limiting such contact But Polis abruptly changed subject and decided to turn over the records prompting Moss to sue Related Articles Stuck in Aurora ICE facility more detainees are 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criminal inspection and he revealed that no one in Polis office or the labor department with the possible exception of the governor himself really considered that the subpoena was part of a criminal scrutiny The subpoena is not signed by a judge and the federal statute that it cites is related to immigration enforcement In her email Tuesday Wieman Polis spokeswoman did not address questions about whether the state had pursued or received any additional information confirming the existence of the study allegedly underpinning the subpoena Nor did she address questions about whether Polis had directed any state support to check on the children Stay up-to-date with Colorado Politics by signing up for our weekly newsletter The Spot