The executive guidance signed Wednesday by Jared Polis prevents U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement from gathering people’s personal information from the state unless agents have a court order or are investigating a crime
The Colorado Sun — jesse@coloradosun.com Desk: 720-432-2229
Gov. Jared Polis quietly issued guidance this week barring state agencies from releasing Coloradans’ personal information to federal entities that plan to use the data for the sole purpose of immigration enforcement.
The directive issued Wednesday prevents U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and other federal agencies from gathering data unless they have a court order or are investigating a crime.
Information — such as names, birthdays, social security or tax identification numbers, driver’s licenses and addresses — may not be released if its use is “solely related to federal immigration enforcement,” the guidance states.
The four-page executive guidance was issued without public notification and comes after lawmakers were working on a bill this year to outlaw information sharing for immigration purposes between ICE and state offices such as the Colorado Division of Motor Vehicles. The Colorado Sun learned of the guidance on Friday.
A spokesman for Polis, Conor Cahill, said the directive was “internal guidance provided to our agencies … and not an executive order.” Since it was meant for internal purposes, it was not made public.
“This guidance is about protecting the data of all Coloradans,” Cahill added.
Immigrant advocates have worried that ICE is using data from the DMV, which offers driver’s licenses to people living in the U.S. unlawfully, to help with federal immigration enforcement. The guidance is likely to cause further friction between Colorado and the Trump administration when it comes to immigration enforcement.
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