In 2006, a law was passed in Colorado that would allow police officers to cooperate with ICE operations. It was known colloquially as the “show me your papers” law. Peace officers were given the ability to report individuals who they believed to be “illegally” present within the United States to federal immigrant enforcement agencies.
The police officers of Colorado were effectively deputized to act on behalf of ICE until 2013 when Governor John Hickenlooper repealed the law, ending a seven year era of racial and ethnic profiling.
The “show me your papers” law wildly violated the due processes for deportation that our constitution establishes. Typically, for ICE officers to detain an individual who they believe is illegally living in the United States, they must first obtain a warrant signed by a judge. With the passage of the “show me your papers” law, ICE operatives could rely on police testimony to establish a warrant.
In order for a police officer to achieve “probable cause” to believe an individual is living in the United States without documentation, they would have to ask, at one of these routine stops, for the individual to show them their papers.
The Fourth Amendment of the constitution protects the people of the United States from unreasonable searches and seizures from law enforcement. So, a police officer who believes someone does not have documentation based on the color of their skin or the language they speak does not constitute any form of search.
If this is the case, how would police officers obtain the knowledge that someone is illegally residing in the United States? By lying. By violating the rights of individuals who are not aware of them.
Often, police officers will use coercive tactics along with the fear to obligate individuals into incriminating themselves. This law would be unable to function if this were not the case.
In the midst of Donald Trump’s radical immigration reform, the “show me your papers” law was put forward once again. It was titled bill SB25-047.
Trump has continued to incite fear in the Colorado community about possible criminal immigrants. In Oct. 2024, Trump held a rally in Aurora about the supposed “Venezuelan gang activity” present in the communities. Although numerous police investigations came back with negative conclusions to gang presence, Trump continues to spread false information that Aurora is a hotbed for criminal immigrant activities. The bill was reintroduced by republican lawmakers in early February to stoke the flames of fear.
So, when this law was proposed again to the Colorado state committee, the community did not stand by. The Colorado People’s Alliance, or COPA, was present at all of the state congressional committee hearings. COPA has also been working diligently to provide “know your rights” training to the local community to prevent unlawful detainment.
“It was powerful to see so many individuals come together and face our elected officials to tell and demand them to listen and protect the trust our community has on them to do the right thing, to not let us go back to our dark days,” Lamine Kane, an organizer at COPA, said. “Coloradans overall want everyone to feel safe approaching law enforcement and reporting crime when they witness it. This bill would have taken away the trust many residents of the state have in law enforcement as it would have unfairly singled out immigrants,” Kane added.
“As we have built relationships with each other over a long period of time, we have realized the benefits of coming together and power-building because when we needed to unite for the benefit of all Coloradans, we did and as a result preserved the rights and dignity of so many,” said Kane.
The Colorado Immigration Rights Coalition (CIRC) published an article about the community show out against SB25-047 at the Colorado State Capitol.
In the article, they stated, “On February 25th, hundreds of community members, advocates, and allies gathered at the Colorado State Capitol against SB25-047 – wearing white and packing the Old Colorado Supreme Court Chambers and [two] overflow rooms.”
Prior to the state committee meeting, student groups such as the Club for Collective Liberation held “call in” events to local representatives. Thousands of calls flooded into every Colorado representative’s office, urging them to protect our Colorado communities, to protect the rights of the people.
The collective forces of our communities were able to prevent this tragic injustice to the law enforcement system from resurfacing in Colorado. The community mobilized against this racist law from going into place and our systems responded accordingly.
To coin the phrase that COPA rallies under, “When we fight, we win.”
