Trump administration publicly lists ‘sanctuary jurisdictions’ — including 41 of Colorado’s 64 counties

WASHINGTON — The Department of Homeland Security is putting more than 500 “sanctuary jurisdictions” across the country on notice that the Trump administration views them as obstructing immigration enforcement as it attempts to increase pressure on communities it believes are standing in the way of the president’s mass deportations agenda.

The department on Thursday published a list of the jurisdictions and said each one will receive formal notification that the government has deemed them noncompliant and if they’re believed to be in violation of any federal criminal statutes.

The list of “sanctuary jurisdictions” includes Colorado as a whole, plus 41 of the state’s 64 counties, including traditional liberal strongholds such as Denver and Boulder counties alongside more conservative locales such as El Paso and Weld counties. (See full list below.)

Homeland Security also designates 15 Colorado municipalities as “sanctuary jurisdictions,” including Denver — again — and Aurora, Fort Collins, Durango, Vail, Longmont and more.

“These sanctuary city politicians are endangering Americans and our law enforcement in order to protect violent criminal illegal aliens,” DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said in a press release.

The Trump administration has repeatedly targeted communities, states and jurisdictions that it says aren’t doing enough to help Immigration and Customs Enforcement as it seeks to make good on President Donald Trump’s campaign promises to remove millions of people in the country illegally.

The list was compiled using a number of factors, including whether the cities or localities identified themselves as sanctuary jurisdictions, how much they complied already with federal officials enforcing immigration laws, if they had restrictions on sharing information with immigration enforcement or had any legal protections for people in the country illegally, according to the department.

The list notes that Colorado is included because of “self-identification as a state sanctuary jurisdiction.” It does not explain the inclusion of any of the state’s cities or counties.

Gov. Jared Polis has long denied that Colorado is a sanctuary state, even reiterating that last week as he signed a bill that further limits federal immigration authorities’ access to public buildings in the state and local governments’ ability to share information with those authorities.

The Trump administration is already suing Colorado and the city of Denver over previous laws limiting local governments’ interaction with federal immigration authorities.

Trump signed an executive order on April 28 requiring the secretary of Homeland Security and the attorney general to publish a list of states and local jurisdictions that they considered to be obstructing federal immigration laws. The list is to be regularly updated.

Federal departments and agencies, working with the Office of Management and Budget, would then be tasked with identifying federal grants or contracts with those states or local jurisdictions that the federal government identified as “sanctuary jurisdictions” and suspending or terminating the money, according to the executive order.

If “sanctuary jurisdictions” are notified and the Trump administration determines that they “remain in defiance,” the attorney general and the secretary of Homeland Security are then empowered to pursue whatever “legal remedies and enforcement measures” they consider necessary to make them comply.

There’s no specific or legal definition of what constitutes a “sanctuary jurisdiction.” The term is often used to refer to law enforcement agencies, states or communities that don’t cooperate with immigration enforcement.

ICE enforces immigration laws nationwide, but often seeks state and local help in alerting federal authorities of immigrants wanted for deportation and holding that person until federal officers take custody.