This story was produced as part of the Colorado Capitol News Alliance. It first appeared at cpr.org.
A sheriff’s lawsuit challenging a state law that prohibits local law enforcement officers from working with federal immigration authorities was tossed out by a federal judge.
Attorney General Phil Weiser last summer sued a Mesa County sheriff’s deputy after he tipped off immigration officials about a Utah college student he had just pulled over on a traffic violation.
The Mesa deputy, Alexander Zwinck, was accused of informing Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers about Caroline Dias Goncalves, who was traveling on Interstate 70. Zwinck gave her a warning on an alleged traffic violation, but then told immigration officials that she could be in the country without documentation and they stopped her a few miles down the road without a warrant.
Dias Goncalves, who was a 19-year-old nursing student, had no criminal record, but was detained for more than two weeks. She came to the United States from Brazil with her parents as a 7-year-old. She is out of custody now and is party to a larger class action lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union against the federal government about warrantless ICE arrests.
Weiser, at the time, filed an unusual lawsuit against Deputy Zwinck, asserting he had no right to share, or even look into, Dias Goncalves’ personal identifying information for purposes of assisting ICE. The attorney general filed the suit under a 6-year-old Colorado law that allows law enforcement officers to be sued for misconduct.
Then, Mesa County Sheriff Todd Rowell, Undersheriff Matthew King and Capt. Curtis Brammer, who supervised Zwinck, countersued the state on grounds that the state law banning local law enforcement from working with ICE is both vague and violates the Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution, which establishes that federal law is the supreme law of the land.
In a ruling issued Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Gordon Gallagher disagreed.
Gallagher wrote that the sheriff and his deputies lack standing to bring suit against the state. The federal judge argued that Zwinck’s conduct falls squarely within the wording of the state statute.
The state law “only applies to intentional sharing of information for federal immigration purposes, and the text unambiguously attaches liability to the intention of the individual sharing information, not the individual or entity receiving information,” the judge wrote, bolding the word in his ruling.
The original case against Zwinck was dropped by Weiser after the deputy chose to leave his job as a Mesa County Sheriff’s Office. He said he was leaving Colorado law enforcement, according to a resignation letter.
The Mesa County Sheriff’s Office said in an email that they’ll use the ruling to guide training and operations and comply with Colorado law.
“I appreciate the time and attention Judge Gallagher gave this case,” Rowell said in a statement. “It is essential for local law enforcement to collaborate with federal law enforcement to keep our community safe. This ruling guides how we can do that while complying with Colorado law.”
