- Colorado immigrants. Governor signed an executive order prohibiting state authorities from sharing personal information with immigration authorities
- The rule is effective if the sole purpose of that exchange is to enforce immigration laws
- Access to data such as the person’s name, date of birth, driver’s license and address will not be allowed. The exception is if the order is accompanied by a court order
Colorado immigrants. Colorado Gov. Jared Polis signed an executive order this week, released this Friday, prohibiting state agencies from sharing personal information with federal immigration authorities if the sole purpose of that exchange is to enforce immigration laws.
The decree, a four-page document sent Wednesday to Colorado agencies, prevents the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other federal agencies from accessing specific information about a person (name, date of birth, driver’s license, address) unless the order is accompanied by a court order.
“My administration is focused on making Colorado work for everyone. And to uphold that vision, we must ensure that everyone in Colorado is confident that they can receive state aid without making undue sacrifices related to their private data, ”Polis, a Democrat, said in his decree.
In that context, the document says, “we want to make sure that all departments of the (Colorado) Executive Branch and all state agencies have regulations to protect consumer data and privacy, including requests for information by the Government. federal or third party ”.
Therefore, Colorado agencies must now create a record of each request for personal information they receive, indicating who makes it, what information is requested and why, and whether the request was accepted or denied.
And, if the request is approved, the information must be accompanied by a note indicating that the data provided may only be used “for active criminal investigations”, and not “for civil immigration purposes.”
Agencies now have 30 days to fully implement the new rules, and then must submit quarterly reports to the state government.
Polis issued his decree after numerous rumors in local and national media that federal immigration agents had access to certain private data that hospitals or aid centers had compiled, using that data to later locate suspected undocumented immigrants.
Although those rumors were not confirmed, this Thursday, in a virtual press conference, the state senator Julie Gonzales, a Democrat, expressed that since the beginning of the quarantine two months ago she received numerous calls from local residents indicating that they would not request help, not even medical coverage, so as not to share information with the Government.
Gonzales, who endorsed the Polis decree, successfully pushed for several new immigrant protection laws this year, including banning the use of a person’s immigration status to deny them renting a home, and banning immigration arrests in or near local courts.
Additionally, a survey released this week by Latino Decisions (and commissioned by UnidosUS, SOMOS, and MoveOn) indicates that the majority of Latinos in the United States are suspicious of federal authorities, even if the government offers them help with the pandemic.
According to the Census Bureau, 10% of the nearly 6 million people in Colorado were born abroad. Among those immigrants, 150,000 to 190,000 would be undocumented, estimates the Pew Research Center.
Filed Under: Colorado Immigrants
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