Phil Weiser:
Well, if there’s an actual criminal investigation that’s happening, in that place, there is actual cooperation around a crime. That’s a very different situation.
We in Colorado cooperate all the time with federal law enforcement partners. And if someone is here without authorization and they have done harmful, dangerous actions, they should be held to account. But what Colorado law says is, we need our law enforcement focused on law enforcement. We don’t have enough law enforcement officers in Colorado.
That’s a public policy decision that we’re making not to do the federal government’s work. It’s their job to do that work. And the problem with this lawsuit you mentioned is, they’re trying to coerce us in Colorado to do their jobs. They’re threatening us, saying, we’re going to hold you in some sort of negative way.
And we have had funds threatened before. We have got cases involving emergency management funds, transportation funds where the federal government is saying, if we don’t do their work for them, they’re going to withhold money from us. That’s a blatant violation of the Constitution. We’re a sovereign state. We get to make decisions about how our law enforcement do their work.
