Shooting deaths in Minneapolis involving Immigration & Customs Enforcement’s operations have stirred strong opinions about what to do with illegal immigration in our state and across the country.

Many Coloradans are against ICE’s operations in Minneapolis and elsewhere, including here in Colorado, under President Donald Trump and find them to be unwarranted and dangerous. 

Many other Coloradans are in full support of Trump and ICE, believing it’s more than reasonable for the federal government to apprehend and deport people here illegally. Especially when they have committed crimes over and above entering the country illegally in the first place.

In the midst of that heated debate, advocacy group Advance Colorado has announced its citizens initiative on the subject has qualified for the November general election. Ballot Measure 95 asks voters to undo restrictions the state has placed on state and local law enforcement cooperation with federal immigration authorities. The measure would change the state constitution to require law enforcement to notify federal immigration officials when they charge a person who is in the country illegally, and the alleged offense is a violent crime or the suspect previously has been charged with a felony.

Specifically, the measure requires law enforcement to notify the U.S. Department of Homeland Security within 72 hours after charging a suspect with a crime if two conditions are met: the person is not “lawfully present” in the U.S. (or the legal status cannot be determined); the person is charged with a violent offense or the individual previously was convicted of a felony.

If you’re a casual observer of state politics and are scratching your head wondering how and why the ballot proposal was necessary, it’s because in 2019 state lawmakers passed House Bill 19-1124 barring Colorado law enforcement from arresting someone solely on the basis of a federal “immigration detainer” request. It prevents our state’s law enforcement from providing personally identifying information about someone’s immigration status to immigration authorities.

Under Colorado’s “progressive” Democrat-dominated leadership, the 2019 legislation — and 2025 follow-up legislation extending the prohibitions to political subdivisions, including local governments, school districts, special districts, the judicial and legislative branches and higher education institutions — have brought the hammer down on law enforcement. The state’s top prosecutor, Attorney General Phil Weiser, even sued a Mesa County sheriff’s deputy for providing a motorist’s — and suspected illegal immigrant’s — personal information to federal officials during a traffic stop.

With seven years gone, and evolving public sentiment on illegal immigration since the 2019 legislation, Advance’s ballot issue provides an opportunity at last for Colorado’s law-abiding, taxpaying citizenry to bypass a tone-deaf legislature in getting dangerous lawbreakers — who also happen to be illegally in the country — off our streets and into federal custody, where they belong. 

At present, illegal immigrants who commit additional crimes here (or are picked up here by local law enforcement for crimes committed in other states) either take up our jail space or increase the danger on our streets when they are released on recognizance bonds. Too often, they never show up again for subsequent court dates after they are released.

It’s all because we can’t notify the feds these guys are about to be released. If that doesn’t make sense to you, there’s now a ballot issue for you to set things straight.