The requests of federal authorities to detain undocumented immigrants will be ignored by various Colorado chiefs of police, state authorities announced.
This measure comes after recent judicial rulings in other states concluded that the detention requests from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) could lead to constitutional violations, since they detain people for far longer than the law permits, according to a report from The Associated Press, reported ABC.
In many U.S. states, detaining undocumented immigrants for minor infractions such as traffic tickets have become a source of constant fear for immigrants, who are regularly detained by request of ICE to be deported.
This is why in recent months, organizations fighting for the rights of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. have raised their voices to stop these deportations which, in most of the cases, do not have a serious criminal record and who are separated from their families due to the deportation process.
States like Oregon and Pennsylvania already ruled that ICE's requests are beyond their attributes, since they are not orders that local jurisdictions are obligated to follow, according to ABC.
Now, in Colorado, Joe Pelle, Chief of Police of Boulder County, sent an email to the AP, in which he reported that the inmates ICE has requested to be detained will be set free once the federal or state charges they face are resolved.
This measure will prevent police departments in Colorado counties from being sued for similar conducts as it occurred in other states.
"This recent legal ruling in Oregon changes the rules of the game in regards to the control ICE has on the requests to keep someone detained," wrote Pelle in the email he sent the AP.
This measure, however, has not been emulated by all of Colorado's police departments, but its expected that in the short term it could be applied by the authorities of all Colorado counties.