Amid Trump’s deportation threat, here’s how Colorado immigration lawyers and advocates are working to protect undocumented immigrants
While the president-elect has promoted hardline immigration policies, Colorado law limits federal officials' reach in local communities
Summit Daily
Andrea Teres-Martinez/Vail Daily
President-elect Donald Trump‘s return to power could usher in one of the most consequential eras for immigrant communities in decades.
His pledge to carry out the “largest deportation in the history of our country” spells uncertainty for the estimated 11.7 million undocumented people living in the United States. He’s vowed to end birthright citizenship on his first day in office, fight to overturn the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that shields certain undocumented immigrants who arrived in the U.S. as children from deportation, and suggested he’s open to using military force to execute his immigration plans.
In Colorado, where an estimated 156,000 undocumented immigrants were living as of 2022, attorneys and advocacy groups are preparing for increased risk to their communities — even as some point to state laws that could provide a layer of protection for undocumented people.
Regions in Colorado with some of the largest immigrant populations include rural resort areas, where tourism-based jobs have drawn generations of workers and some school districts maintain student bodies that are around half or more Latino or Hispanic.
“People are definitely scared,” said Dillon-based attorney William McNamara, referencing several calls he’s received from current and former clients following the election. “There’s a lot of uncertainty.”
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What protections are in place for immigrants in Colorado?
Leaders for immigrant advocacy groups are already taking action to prepare for what they anticipate will be a turbulent four years.
That involves pushing local officials to take strong stances that reaffirm immigrant protections currently in place for undocumented and mixed-status communities.
“I think there’s an important message to be sent, and we can do that through ordinances and resolutions,” said Alex Sanchez, CEO and president for the Western Slope-based nonprofit Voces Unidas.
Sanchez points to a first-of-its-kind “safe haven” policy passed by the Roaring Fork School District earlier this year as an example. The policy, which Voces Unidas advocated for, codifies a 2016 resolution barring federal immigration enforcement officers who lack a federal judicial warrant from carrying out actions on school grounds.
“We’re hoping other counties, other school districts across the state, particularly in the High Country, are brave enough to pass similar policies,” Sanchez said. “Local governments should be focused on keeping all of us thriving and safe, and we should not be forced to do anything that the federal government has a responsibility for.”
Colorado lawmakers in recent years have taken steps to limit federal immigration officials’ reach in local communities.
In 2019, the legislature passed House Bill 19-1124, which prohibits state law enforcement from arresting or detaining someone solely based on their immigration status. It also prohibits state officials from sharing someone’s personal information with federal immigration authorities.
Subsequent laws have been passed banning immigration officials from making arrests in courthouses and restricting local governments and law enforcement from partnering with those officials to hold people who are facing federal civil immigration proceedings.
State lawmakers have also sought to remove barriers for immigrants when accessing housing and safety net programs.
Colorado’s Immigrant Tenant Protection Act, passed in 2020, makes it illegal for landlords to ask for citizenship or immigration information from tenants. The 2022 “Cover All Coloradans” law allows immigrant residents to apply for health insurance regardless of their immigration status. All Colorado residents are also able to apply for a driver’s license or state ID regardless of immigration status under the 2013 Colorado Road and Community Safety Act.
Peter Bakken, executive director for the Frisco-based group Mountain Dreamers, said immigrants in Colorado must know their rights under state law. During the first Trump administration, misinformation “spread like wildfire,” and Bakken said ensuring immigrant communities have access to trusted, factual information will be critical this time around.
“Colorado is positioned to help protect and support the immigrant community,” Bakken said. “Our message is going to be that — ‘we are here; we’re not going anywhere; we’re going to continue to support immigrants regardless of status.'”
Bakken said his organization will be focused on maintaining and bolstering community partnerships, which have helped the nonprofit support several vital services and programs. That includes providing emergency housing for migrants and helping new arrivals navigate everything from learning bus routes to enrolling their children in school.
“We started during the last Trump administration — and we’re stronger and more connected and more involved with various organizations,” Bakken said. “So we feel that puts us in a much better position to be more proactive on these types of issues.”
While Bakken has noted some anxiety from local community members about a second Trump term, he said the specter of uncertainty has long hung over immigrant households regardless of who is in the White House.
Bakken said it remains to be seen to what extent Trump will follow through on his many hardline campaign proposals, including mass deportations. He suspects many of those policies will be bedeviled by lawsuits and pushback from states like Colorado.
Still, the threat of deportation is all too real for some in the immigrant community.
More than 20 years ago, Sanchez’s mother was deported to Mexico when he was a young child living in El Jebel, an unincorporated area roughly 20 miles north of Aspen — where his mother worked as a housekeeper.
He said deportations of working residents, like his mother, devastate families and economies. In 2022, Colorado’s undocumented population paid an estimated $436.5 million in state and local taxes, according to a recent study from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.
“In the High Country and central mountain region, many of us live with mixed-status families,” Sanchez said. “We know the hurt, we know the harm, we know the disruption (mass deportations) will cause to the local economy, not to mention the personal impact it will cause.”
How are Colorado immigration lawyers preparing amid threat of deportation?
As Coloradans woke up the morning after Election Day, attorneys began preparing for what immigration law might look like under a second Trump administration.
For McNamara, an attorney for Elevation Law, this means reviewing all of his clients’ cases and assessing whether a different strategy might be necessary going forward.
McNamara said he’s been working with clients to submit any outstanding applications, renew work permits, and, in the case of clients with more than one basis for a work permit, apply for a second.
“In the past, I might have recommended to a client … ‘if you already have a work permit, it would be a little redundant to just have a second one,'” McNamara said. “That advice would be different now because it’s unclear what’s going to happen to different benefit programs.”
In 2017, the Trump administration attempted to remove DACA — one of the most well-known programs — but it was ultimately upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. A day after the ruling, Trump pledged to continue his fight to end DACA.
The program only accepted applications from 2012-17 for immigrants who had entered the U.S. before 2007 and before their 16th birthday. Up until now, immigrants under DACA have been able to renew their protections, which would dissolve if the program is eliminated.
One of McNamara’s clients is a DACA holder — one of the many who’ve had to reevaluate their path to citizenship after the presidential election. In addition to holding a job critical to her local community, she had been wanting to apply for advanced parole to visit a terminally ill family member in her country of origin.
“I just don’t know that I would feel comfortable with her traveling unless she could do it before the end of the year,” McNamara said. “A DACA holder who’s traveling on advanced parole and is coming back to a Trump administration, I think there’s a good chance they wouldn’t be allowed into the United States. That’s a risk I wouldn’t be willing to take anymore.”
Jennifer Smith, owner of Smith Immigration in Glenwood Springs, said her team has prioritized working with clients who are “most vulnerable to negative outcomes” to assess what their next steps should be.
Smith’s firm had already been established by the time Trump was elected to his first term in 2016. Although it can be difficult to predict exactly what will happen during the next four years, Smith said, they have a general idea of what to expect based on their previous experience — including stronger enforcement, more removal proceedings and more difficulty accessing existing protections.
“I think that will cause some people to not want to file (for) anything,” Smith said. “I think there will be some people who will want to withdraw applications that they have legitimately pending out of a desire to not be in the system.”
The kinds of calls Smith has received from clients range from “fight” to “flight” responses. Some have asked for guidance, determined to do as much as possible before Jan. 20 — Trump’s inauguration day. Others have kept to themselves.
“It’s a mixed bag,” she said. “We are hearing from people who are worried, and we are also seeing a lot of quiet.”
In addition to preparing for increased enforcement, both McNamara and Smith mentioned concerns over Project 2025 — a framework of proposals for the Republican president to execute a sweeping overhaul of the executive branch. Although Trump has stated he is not involved with the project and expressed disapproval over some of the proposals, the appointment of some of its authors to his administration makes some skeptical of his involvement, seeing his initial rejection of the project as a polling strategy.
“Especially in light of the control of Congress and appointment of various people who worked on Project (2025) into positions of power within the new administration … it forces us to take that stuff seriously and at face value,” Smith said.
Smith said she has been responding to concerned callers with general advice on how undocumented immigrants — or those with temporary visas — can protect themselves as the political landscape shifts from underneath them.
She warned against listening to scam artists who falsely advertise that they can help with immigration issues without having any legal training or authorization and who have used deceptive tactics such as copying the logos and letterhead of various Department of Homeland Security agencies.
“Don’t let fear make you trust someone with unreliable information,” Smith said. “Where there’s a lot of uncertainty, there are a lot of non-trustworthy people that come in to fill the gaps.”
Smith’s recommendations for the immigrant community include carrying identification, proof of status or proof of long-time residency when out in public, not driving without a license, and being careful of what gets posted on social media.
