The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
“Sides do not matter when it comes to the law and being a peace officer”
By Katherine Nettles
Gunnison County was named a sanctuary jurisdiction last week, along with about 500 other jurisdictions across the country that the Trump administration declared to be obstructing immigration enforcement policies of the federal government. Although the list of sanctuary jurisdictions has since been removed from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) website, the path forward is unclear and county officials say the listing was an inaccurate depiction of Gunnison County’s policies.
On Thursday, May 29, President Donald Trump declared 41 counties within the state of Colorado to be immigrant sanctuary jurisdictions —including Gunnison. By Sunday, the DHS website no longer had the web page up but if the declaration is reinstated, it could mean months of court battles as hundreds of jurisdictions on the list have already formally challenged the declaration. Trump had warned that those listed could face federal funding cuts.
The May 29 designation came as a surprise to most county officials, who do not identify the county as a sanctuary for undocumented immigrants and do not believe the characterization is warranted.
The designation stems from Trump’s executive order at the end of April directing DHS to publish a list of states and local governments “that obstruct the enforcement of federal immigration laws (sanctuary jurisdictions).”
The executive order stated that after the list was published, “the Attorney General and the Secretary of Homeland Security shall notify each sanctuary jurisdiction regarding its defiance of Federal immigration law enforcement and any potential violations of Federal criminal law.” He had said jurisdictions on the list might face losing federal funding and federal contracts.
When DHS released this list for Colorado, it included 14 cities and 41 of the state’s 64 counties. The next day two counties, Weld and El Paso, and the city of Aurora were removed from the list and a few days later the list had disappeared completely. It remains missing from the DHS website and there have been no updates from the federal government on the process as of press time.
Elected and appointed officials within Gunnison County weighed in on the move and confusion as to what it could mean.
“I saw the original list of so-called Sanctuary Counties,” commented Gunnison County sheriff Adam Murdie in an email to the Crested Butte News. “I also understand that the Department of Homeland Security, i.e. Tom Homan, pulled that list for further review. I will be very clear, I have never seen what it takes to get on their “List” so it would be great to find out how that actually works.”
Murdie stated further, “We do cooperate with all our federal partners to the extent that Colorado law allows us to. I can also say that we will continue to arrest any individual that has a warrant for their arrest that is signed by a Judge or Magistrate or who breaks the laws of this State or County. This has nothing to do with immigration or being a sanctuary county.
“Immigration detainers are not warrants signed by a judge or magistrate, only signed by an ICE agent. We notify immigration if we have someone that is in our jail that is in the United States without following the proper channels. We do notify ICE when they are ready to bond out of jail. It is up to ICE to be here if they want to retrieve those individuals,” continued Murdie. “We are sworn to uphold the Constitution of the United States of America, the Constitution of the State of Colorado and the laws of the State of Colorado and Gunnison County. We do not have, nor will we have the authority to uphold the Laws of the United States of America. When the laws and the constitution are grey or bumping heads with each other, the courts take over and make a determination as to what needs to happen, not us. As for Gunnison County being a sanctuary county, well that’s a matter of opinion and has nothing to do with the Office of Sheriff. This is not in a political position. Sides do not matter when it comes to the law and being a peace officer.”
County manager Matthew Birnie commented as well, “Gunnison County has no policy designating us as a “sanctuary.” We consider Gunnison County to be a welcoming community, and we have no role in immigration enforcement, but we also do not interfere with federal immigration enforcement efforts. We currently do not know why they designated us a “sanctuary” or what this designation might mean,” he wrote.
County commissioner Laura Puckett Daniels summarized, “We don’t know how or why we got on that list; we don’t know what the criteria was for creating it. It is a bit baffling partly because we follow the law. We follow Colorado law and federal law—and it’s not the county’s role to enforce federal immigration laws. The north star for us is how to serve people, be a force for good in their lives when other things are feeling erratic and inconsistent.”
She said the board has not yet discussed if they would formally protest the designation if it were reinstated. “We would have to navigate [this designation] if it comes back up. We certainly want to be a welcoming county… people have been immigrating to the Gunnison Valley for more than 100 years. We have many immigrants here, and we want to make sure they are integrated in the valley, and their presence here makes our valley rich and interesting. That’s certainly a core value for us.”
At the end of May, Governor Jared Polis signed into law Senate Bill 276 that further restricted Colorado’s local governing bodies from aiding in federal immigration enforcement. The law, titled “protecting civil rights immigration status,” added new measures aimed to ensure that civil rights are not violated in Colorado based on immigration status. The bill can be found at https://leg.colorado.gov/bills/sb25-276.