Colorado officials have turned over records to ICE four times this year — including once by mistake

Colorado state officials have turned over records requested by immigration authorities at least four times this year — including once by mistake, Gov. Jared Polis’ office said Tuesday.

The state Department of Labor and Employment provided records to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in response to three subpoenas from the agency this year, Polis’ office said. One of those was a request that state officials “erroneously” complied with. The Marijuana Enforcement Division provided records to ICE in response to another request.

That information, newly confirmed to The Denver Post, comes as state agencies have now acknowledged receiving nine immigration-related subpoenas this year from the Trump administration. Whether to comply has stoked political tension internally as well as with immigrant-rights advocates since state law generally prohibits government employees from turning over personal identifying information to ICE.

The exceptions are if the state is ordered to comply by a judge or if the information is sought as part of a criminal investigation.

The state did not turn over records in response to five of the ICE subpoenas received this year, including one that Polis had initially decided to comply with before he was ordered not to by a Denver judge.

One subpoena, sent to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, sought a list of all individuals born in Colorado on a specific date in February in 2004 and 2005. In an email to ICE agents in March, a state attorney said the agency couldn’t provide the records because the state didn’t keep lists of that nature.

Polis spokeswoman Shelby Wieman said in an email that one subpoena sent to the labor department shouldn’t have been complied with. That subpoena sought wage and employment records from an employer whose name was redacted from the document before it was provided to The Post.

“We are implementing procedures to ensure that erroneous sharing does not happen in the future, including elevating any potential responses to (Department of Homeland Security) subpoenas to the Governor’s Office for review and approval,” she wrote.

In a follow-up email, Wieman said a labor department employee “produced records in response to a subpoena request without first getting final approval from department leadership or the Governor’s Office.” The agency then reassigned “subpoena response duties to a higher authority.” She did not respond when asked if the employee had been disciplined.

The department also “critically analyzed its current subpoena process, implemented stricter protocols, and provided additional training to staff members involved in the subpoena process and how to elevate requests.”

The three subpoenas that Wieman said were correctly fulfilled all involved alleged criminal investigations. In emails to agency officials provided to reporters Tuesday, an ICE agent said one subpoena was related to “waste, fraud and abuse” investigations and not immigration.

Two were sent to the labor department in February. One involved an investigation into human trafficking, according to the document, and the other was an investigation related to human and drug trafficking. Both sought employment records from specific companies.

The narcotics subpoena stated that the investigation “includes numerous victims from other countries.”

The subpoena sent to the marijuana regulators also sought employment data.

Tuesday’s disclosure, provided by Wieman, is the first time that state officials have acknowledged complying with subpoenas from ICE. The labor department earlier told The Post that it had received four subpoenas; the Colorado Sun reported late last week that the agency had received seven subpoenas.