The unpaid, weeks-long suspension of a deputy sheriff out of Mesa County for sharing information with federal agents has raised questions about how local authorities must navigate a state law that bars cooperation with immigration enforcers.

More notably, it’s unclear whether the impositions of the new law also mean limiting access by local officers to the more expansive federal databases — something the Mesa County deputy had cited as a major reason for cooperating with multiple agencies. 

The law, expanded this year, expressly prohibits all Colorado state agencies and political subdivisions from sharing or inquiring into individuals’ personal identifying information for the purposes of enforcing immigration laws. The law imposes a civil fine of $50,000 for each violation.

It’s among a slew of “sanctuary” policies that critics view as handcuffing both local and federal agents’ ability to fight crime and deport foreign nationals unlawfully staying in America. Their supporters have argued they are needed to keep the federal government from “commandeering limited state public safety capacity” for their own purposes and to preserve the trust between the police and communities they serve.

Court documents and an investigative report into the detention of a Utah student following a traffic stop in June — the state has filed a lawsuit against the deputy who sent a message to a multi-agency communications channel about the driver’s identity — offer glimpses into how local and federal agents interact along America’s major corridors. 

Notably, the practice of sharing information about interdictions to other agencies appeared routine, and, when the subject of a police stop is in the country illegally, immigration agents had showed up to detain the individual, according to the documents.  

But that practice of information sharing — a sore point of contention in other parts of the state, notably in Denver, whose political leaders had perennially balked at cooperating with immigration agents unless the case is criminal in nature — is evolving.

Where it ends up remains to be seen.      

Already, the Colorado State Patrol said it will stop communicating via a Signal chat channel shared by local officers and federal drug and immigration agents. 

What’s not immediately clear is whether the Colorado State Patrol — which said it used the Signal chat for operations targeting drug trafficking and organized crime — will continue to share information with federal agencies, just not with immigration entities. 

State Patrol Chief Matthew Packard said that it “reevaluated” its use of the communications channel because of an “apparent lack of shared purpose among all agencies on the platform.”

On June 5, Mesa County Sheriff’s Deputy Alexander Zwinck was patrolling I-70 west of the Loma Port of Entry when he saw a car, traveling eastbound, too close to a semi-trailer, leading him to suspect it might be transporting illegal narcotics.

He stopped the car, asked for the driver’s information and entered the name into a database. 

The local dispatch advised him that the driver was “clear,” the officer said. 

According to Zwinck’s version of events, he noticed something about the driver’s license plate tabs or the registration not matching up. Around that time, he also sent a picture of the driver’s license to the Signal group. he said. 

During an administrative inquiry, Zwinck explained why.

He told the investigator that, as part of his narcotic interdiction duties, he communicates with other officers from around the Western Slope via the Signal group, which had included Colorado state troopers, officers from Eagle County and Vail, and agents from Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the Drug Enforcement Agency.

They all work together on cases, Zwinck said, adding that HSI and DEA agents have access to databases and resources and can pull “much more extensive records” than local authorities.

Through their own databases, the federal agents can see see if drivers or occupants of vehicles are associated with larger drug organizations or involved with cartels — or have any financial history consistent with drug trafficking, he said. 

The federal databases can also check drivers’ travel history, such as if or when they had crossed any country’s borders.

Zwinck said the federal agents would also check the immigration status of any driver whose information he shares via the Signal channel.

That day in June, that’s exactly what happened. The deputy said he recalled federal agents making a comment about the driver’s immigration status — “over-stay.” 

In fact, Zwinck let the driver, Caroline Dias Goncalves, a native of Brazil who came to the U.S. when she was 7 and overstayed her visa, go with a written warning. 

When he next checked the Signal channel, the federal agents had relayed that they were on the way to the highway, the deputy said. He told them he was no longer in contact with the driver, described her vehicle and told them she was headed east.

Later, he said, he saw messages advising that federal agents had detained Dias Goncalves.

To Phil Weiser, the state’s attorney general, Zwinck just violated the state law barring cooperation for immigration enforcement purposes.

A lawsuit filed by Weiser against Zwinck claimed that the officer pressed Dias Goncalves about her nationality, commented on her accent, immediately shared information with federal agents and offered a description of her vehicle and where she was heading — despite the driver having no criminal history.

Weiser’s complaint also alleged that Zwinck repeatedly assisted federal agents from May 23 to June 16, including another incident on June 10.

“Deputy Zwinck himself recognized the substantial level of assistance he provided to federal immigration officers,” Weiser’s lawsuit alleges. 

The Mesa County Sheriff’s Office said it has learned from the incident but also pleaded for time to adjust to the new law, noting the case involving Zwinck and Dias Goncalves occurred just 13 days after the statute took effect.

In a statement, Sheriff Todd Rowell said his office is dedicated to learning from the experience, both via “training and through feedback from our community.”

“As such,” he said, staff members have now “received in-depth training on SB 25-276.”

He added: “Further training will be provided to improve comprehension and implementation of immigration-based legislative changes.”

Rowell said he had pushed to collaborate with federal agents to fight crime in his jurisdiction, and when it comes to drug interdiction, Homeland Security Investigations is the primary partner. There were prior discussions, he said, between his office and HSI about ensuring his deputies would not be involved in immigration enforcement.

The recent case showed “those lines of collaboration were crossed,” he said. 

Rowell didn’t say whether his office would continue any level of cooperation with HSI or how communications with federal agents, if at all, would be conducted.

The Mesa County Sheriff’s Office participates in what’s called the Western Colorado Drug Task Force, part of a high intensity drug trafficking areas program. The county had assigned six deputy sheriffs to the task force, including Zwinck.

Zwinck and several other officers have since been placed on unpaid leave and reassigned away from the task force to patrol duties.