Colorado Democrats on Monday passed a sweeping expansion of the state’s immigrant protection laws, touching on everything from information sharing with federal agencies to criminal proceedings for undocumented defendants. 

Senate Bill 276 passed on a party-line vote in both the House and Senate. Sen. Kyle Mullica, D-Thornton, the only Democrat to vote against the measure in the Senate, ultimately backed the legislation after it came back to the chamber for final approval this week. 

The bill now goes to Gov. Jared Polis, who had expressed skepticism over the measure’s initial version. 

Shelby Weiman, a spokesperson for the governor’s office, said in a statement that Polis’ team has been working with lawmakers and stakeholders, including law enforcement, to “help ensure it doesn’t interfere with our federal law enforcement partnerships.”

Weiman said that Colorado “is not a sanctuary state and works closely with federal and local law enforcement regularly to make Colorado safer,” adding that Polis “continues urging Congress to secure the border and do their job and pass comprehensive immigration reform.”

Roughly 1 in 10 Colorado residents are immigrants, and approximately 156,000 were undocumented as of 2022, according to a 2024 report by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. 

The state has passed a slew of laws in recent years that limit the federal government’s reach. 

That includes restricting state agencies from sharing personal immigration-related information with federal officers, like Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The state also bars federal immigration officers from making arrests in state courthouses and local governments from partnering with those officers to detain people facing civil immigration proceedings. 

Another law prohibits local law enforcement from arresting or detaining someone based solely on their immigration status. 

State Democrats’ push for additional protections comes as President Donald Trump’s Justice Department targets Colorado’s “sanctuary laws” in a new lawsuit. The April 30 filing in the U.S. District Court in Colorado claims the state’s policies violate the U.S. Constitution and interfere with federal immigration enforcement efforts. 

SB 276 builds on many of the state’s existing protections. 

It expands the ban on information sharing between state and federal officials to include local governments as well as the state’s judicial and legislative branches. It also prevents spaces like schools, hospitals and child care centers from providing federal officers access to private spaces and information about enrolled children or patients, unless presented with a valid warrant. 

The bill carries a $50,000 fine for violators, with the revenue going to the state’s Immigration Legal Defense Fund. 

The bill also removes a requirement for students seeking in-state tuition, or people seeking a state ID, who are in the country illegally, to submit an affidavit saying they have applied or plan to apply for lawful status. 

Other provisions of the bill give immigrants without citizenship the ability to challenge guilty pleas that they may have entered unconstitutionally for class 3 misdemeanors, traffic misdemeanors and petty offenses.

Additionally, SB 276 prevents jails and law enforcement officers from delaying a defendant’s release at the request of federal immigration officials, and stipulates that the continued detainment of a person who has posted bond based on a civil immigration detainer constitutes a new, warrantless arrest. 

It also allows the governor to deny access to states sending their National Guard or other military troops into Colorado. 

Rep. Elizabeth Velasco, D-Glenwood Springs, the state’s first Mexican-born legislator, said SB 276 is about protecting constitutional rights. She is a lead sponsor of the bill. 

“This bill does not provide immigrants with more rights than citizens, but it ensures equal treatment under the law,” Velasco said during a May 3 debate on the House floor. “We will continue fighting for a Colorado for all, and we are stronger together.” 

Alex Sanchez, CEO and president for the Western Slope-based advocacy group Voces Unidas, said the bill “will protect due process and the civil rights of all Coloradans, not just immigrants.” It does this by ensuring local, state and federal governments are “all on the same page around due process.” 

Sanchez said the bill also addresses an urban-rural divide when it comes to existing protections.

Despite the current restriction in place at the state level, more conservative Western Slope counties, including Garfield, Moffat and Mesa, have passed resolutions rejecting “sanctuary” policies and signaled they may work with federal immigration officials as needed.

Rural resort areas are home to some of Colorado’s largest immigrant populations, with school districts that are made up of around half or more students representing Latino populations. 

“If you live in a large county that happens to be on the Front Range or is more progressive, you experience a different Colorado than those of us who live in counties like Garfield,” Sanchez said. “Working families, everyday people should be able to have the same due process and the same constitutional rights everywhere in Colorado — all four corners.”

State Republicans lambasted the measure, saying it obstructs federal policy and gets in the way of local law enforcement’s ability to respond to crimes. 

“I feel that we are not enforcing the rights of the people who are here that want to see violent criminals deported,” said House Minority Leader Rose Pugliese, R-Colorado Springs. 

Pugliese directly referenced Polis’ State of the State address to lawmakers at the start of the year, in which he said Colorado has zero tolerance for anyone who commits violent crimes “whether they are American citizens or not” and would welcome “more federal help to detain and deport dangerous criminals.”

Still, Polis rebuked some of Trump’s most hardline immigration proposals. He also called on Congress to create a pathway to citizenship for those enrolled in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, a program commonly referred to as DACA. 

Pugliese said she agreed with the latter, adding, “There must be a legal path to citizenship.”

Several amendments were added to SB 276 to clarify that it isn’t intended to interfere with federal criminal investigations and proceedings, such as ensuring transfers of people from state to federal custody can happen when there is a warrant. 

The legislative session ends May 7.