(The Center Square) – Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser has filed a lawsuit against a Colorado sheriff’s deputy, holding him liable for allegedly cooperating with federal immigration officials.
Weiser made the announcement on Tuesday.
“Colorado Law is clear: it is illegal for local law enforcement to carry out federal civil immigration enforcement,” he posted to social media. “And in Colorado, we do not allow the federal government to commandeer local resources for their own agenda.”
Weiser is suing Deputy Alexander Zwinck of Mesa County for allegedly working with federal immigration officials to detain a 19-year-old illegal immigrant with an expired visa.
The lawsuit, which was filed in Mesa County District Court, states Zwinck had no right to share, or inquire into, the driver’s personal identifying information for the purpose of assisting with federal civil immigration enforcement.
It asks that the court issue an order to prevent Zwinck from “similar unlawful conduct” moving forward.
The incident first started on June 5, when Zwinck pulled over the woman for following too close to a semitruck. She then provided him with her driver’s license, vehicle registration and insurance information, which Zwinck then allegedly uploaded to a Signal group chat, which included federal immigration officers.
“Instead of ending communications with officials on the group chat since there were no criminal matters to follow up on, Deputy Zwinck proceeded to assist the federal immigration officers in detaining the driver,” Weiser’s office said in a press release. “According to the state investigation, Deputy Zwinck provided his location to the federal immigration officers on the chat who indicated that they were on the way.”
Zwinck allegedly stalled the driver, before messaging federal immigration officers with a description of her car, her vehicle’s license plate number and the direction she was traveling once she left. She was later picked up by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials.
“In this case, the driver was detained by immigration authorities because of actions by Colorado law enforcement despite the absence of any criminal activity on her part,” Weiser said. “Her detention for over two weeks is directly due to this violation of Colorado’s laws.”
The Mesa County Sheriff’s Office has also begun an administrative investigation into the incident.
The state alleges this was not the only instance of Zwinck assisting ICE officials and that it is investigating the other law enforcement officers who might have been involved in the Signal chat.
“Because of this action, we are making clear that Colorado law enforcement’s role is to advance public safety, not take on the responsibility of doing the work of federal immigration enforcement,” Weiser said.
This comes as Colorado and its capital city Denver have been under scrutiny for their so-called sanctuary city policies, which limits their cooperation with federal immigration authorities.
Notably, Denver Mayor Mike Johnston joined four other sanctuary city mayors in testifying before a U.S. House Oversight and Government Reform committee in March on the issue, as previously reported by The Center Square.
“Mike Johnston had every opportunity to condemn and change his city’s sanctuary policies,” U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colorado, said on social media on Wednesday. “He refused. Denver is a SANCTUARY CITY that makes all Coloradans less safe.”
