Colorado Sanctuary Laws Survive Trump Administration Challenge

The Trump administration’s lawsuit challenging Colorado’s state and local sanctuary laws was tossed by a federal judge, who said a win for the federal government “would result in allowing Congress to conscript Colorado and Denver resources to implement the federal immigration scheme.”

States have the right to refuse to use their resources to implement federal regulatory programs, Judge Gordon P. Gallagher of the US District Court for the District of Colorado said Tuesday. The administration “seeks to usurp control over Colorado and Denver officials by dictating what the officials can and cannot do,” he said.

Colorado laws limit the collection and disclosure of individuals’ personal information and detention of individuals for federal immigration enforcement purposes, as well as state and local officials from facilitating federal immigration agents’ access to Colorado facilities and detainees. The federal government asserted the statutes violated the US Constitution’s supremacy clause and are preempted by federal immigration laws.

Although the supremacy clause bars states from “contradicting or obstructing the federal immigration scheme,” it doesn’t compel state assistance. Concluding that states’ implementation of the federal immigration scheme is voluntary is also supported by federal immigration laws the Trump administration points to. Those laws allow the government to contract with state and local officials to further federal immigration enforcement, “but does not require such,” Gallagher said.

Holding that Colorado’s prohibition on state and local law enforcement detaining individuals pursuant to immigration detainers violates the supremacy clause, for example, “would directly force Colorado and Denver to bear the cost of enforcing the federal immigration scheme and remove their authority to determine the proper allocation of state resources,” the judge said.

Similarly, holding that limitations on federal agents’ access to Denver’s jails violates the supremacy clause would require Denver to allow federal agents to access and use its facilities for federal immigration purposes. Allowing Congress to commandeer state and local facilities for federal use in this way violates the Fifth Amendment, which “has been interpreted to proactively forbid federal physical occupation of state and local property without just compensation,” Gallagher wrote.

The administration is separately attempting to overturn a California judge’s ruling blocking it from pulling funding from local governments with similar sanctuary policies that refuse to work with federal immigration officers, as the administration continues its broader immigration enforcement crackdown.

The case is U.S. v. Colorado, D. Colo., No. 1:25-cv-01391, 3/31/26.