We get it — ruling Democrats at Colorado’s state Capitol deplore the Trump administration’s yearlong crackdown on illegal immigration. They’ve gone to just about every length to make that clear, in their rhetoric and in their policymaking. 

In making their point, they’ve taken a lot of potshots at the president over the issue and have proposed policies that are petty and impractical. One bill introduced this legislative session, for example, would give anyone injured during an immigration enforcement operation the ability to sue federal agents in state court. The bill assumes a power Colorado might well not have, and it is likely unenforceable. 

No matter; its true aim is to play to the political cheap seats in an election year — in a party for which even the most hollow act of defiance against federal immigration law enforcement is met with cheers. 

But then there are acts of defiance that stand to backfire on our state. The latest such outburst, now pending in the legislature, would bar current or former U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection officers from being hired as law officers in Colorado. House Bill 26-1275 — sponsored by Reps. Meg Froelich, D-Englewood, and Yara Zokaie, D-Fort Collins, as well as by Sens. Mike Weissman, D-Aurora, and Iman Jodeh, D-Aurora — would require the state’s Peace Officer Standards and Training Board to deny them the required certification to serve in law enforcement.

To be sure, the proposed legislation surfs the same wave of pushback at the administration over immigration — red meat for deep-blue Democrats — as the campaign season heats up.

But it also would go beyond the usual grandstanding with a very real impact. It would cut off a source of law enforcement recruitment for Colorado — at a time when it’s hard enough to hire cops as it is.

It was in 2020 that the Democratic majority in the legislature, led by its soft-on-crime political fringe, revoked qualified immunity from law officers statewide. It has had a chilling effect on law enforcement ever since. Men and women in uniform have the specter of a lawsuit hanging over their every action because they could face personal liability. And law enforcement agencies increasingly have felt the pinch when they try to fill openings in their ranks.

Evidently not content with having done only that much damage, lawmakers now seek to shut down an entire source of potential Colorado law officers.

It’s worth noting the tit-for-tat embodied in HB 26-1275 not only shoots Colorado in the foot but also stands to disadvantage minority job applicants disproportionately. According to Department of Homeland Security 2025 data, 48.3% of the department’s workforce — 199,635 employees — are non-White. That includes 22.8% who are Hispanic or Latino and 16.7% who are Black/African American.

Meanwhile, as with the legislature’s other jousts with Washington over illegal immigration, HB 26-1275 blows back on Colorado in another way: It cements Colorado’s status as a sanctuary for illegal immigration — including its criminal element. 

The legislature in the past few years has enacted a series of laws barring state cooperation with federal agencies on immigration enforcement; the mayor of Colorado’s capital city has welcomed illegal immigrants with open arms and generous subsidies; the Colorado Attorney General’s Office even sued a lowly sheriff’s deputy last year for inadvertently informing federal agents about an illegal immigrant he had pulled over on a routine traffic stop.

Again, we get it: Colorado’s powers that be detest the administration’s immigration policies. But do they have to make it so hard for their state’s law officers simply to do their jobs?