Jeffco sheriff pushes back on ‘misleading’ Denver ICE statement

The Jefferson County Sheriff s Office is pushing back against a misleading declaration posted by U S Immigration and Customs Enforcement s Denver field office which sheriff s leaders say faulted them for following Colorado immigration laws by not coordinating with federal agents before releasing a man from jail The Wednesday post on Denver ICE s X account solicited for district assistance finding a -year-old man from Honduras who was distributed from Jefferson County without being turned over to ICE Sheriff s executives disagreed with that characterization posting a lengthy response on the agency s own X profile and on ICE s initial post on Thursday afternoon Let s be clear we are not legally allowed to directly turn over an inmate to any law enforcement agency without a judicially authorized warrant under Colorado law That includes ICE sheriff s officers wrote The man was initially arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence and the sheriff s office received an order to release him at a m Wednesday A sheriff s official spoke to an ICE representative by phone eight minutes later to tell them the man would be circulated and ICE noted they would not be picking him up Jefferson County agents wrote The man was published from the jail at p m and ICE never came to the jail according to the sheriff s office When we called the ICE Denver office about their misleading post they made their position unmistakable if we do not provide ICE extra time to coordinate inmate pickups from our facility in violation of Colorado law deceptive posts like the day prior s will become the norm sheriff s administrators wrote Related Articles How President Trump s shifting deportation push has played out in Colorado There s no small moves Utah college aspirant arrested by ICE in Grand Junction granted bail Colorado won t say if it will turn over Medicaid statistics that feds could use to find immigrants Feds used group chat with Colorado sheriff to target Utah novice for immigration arrest functionaries say Thousands join No Kings protests in Denver and across Colorado A spokesperson for the Denver ICE field office could not promptly be reached for comment This is not the first time Colorado law enforcement have disputed statements made by the federal agency When two men escaped from ICE s Aurora detention center in March agency authorities noted local law enforcement was straightaway notified of the escape and declined to assist with the search But Aurora Police Chief Todd Chamberlain refuted that claim and disclosed staff at the facility did not call to assessment the escape until nearly five hours after they realized two people were missing Sign up to get crime news sent straight to your inbox each day