June 15, 2020 was an important day for immigration law in the United States. Many states, including Colorado, have passed laws that protect immigrants from ICE in various ways. In Colorado, Governor Jared Polis has signed into law a rule prohibiting police from arresting or detaining a person solely on the basis of a civil immigration detainer (an order that someone is removable from the . Colorado law also prohibits a probation officer from providing a person’s personal information to federal immigration authorities. And just this March, Governor Polis signed a law protecting immigrants from arrest while present at a courthouse. This allows immigrants to attend legal proceedings without fear of being arrested, and was a significant victory for immigrants residing in Colorado. Other states have similar laws. For example, California has passed a law banning police from notifying federal agents when immigrants are about to be released from prison. These laws are often referred to as “sanctuary” laws.

The U.S. federal government has challenged many of these laws. In particular, it filed a lawsuit challenging the California law mentioned above. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the challenge to this law, holding that California’s law protecting immigrants was proper. The federal government then filed an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing that the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals had erred and that California lacked the authority to pass laws protecting immigrants from ICE. But on June 15, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the federal government’s appeal on this case.

This is very good news for the immigrant community in the U.S. The federal government tried and failed to undo the types of sanctuary laws that many states have put into place. For now, those sanctuary laws remain in place. The federal government will likely make more challenges to other sanctuary laws. In fact, it has done so in other courts across the country and prevailed.

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