Immigration

A Birch parent described her family's history of forced removal and said she fears daily harassment from ICE. She said the Birch school community supported her family and asked the board to keep Birch open.

Heather Staer described state Initiative 95, which would require local police to report arrests of people not verified as lawfully present to federal authorities, conflicting with existing state law. Staff said this would place an unfunded mandate on Boulder police and conflicts with the city's policy statement opposing local enforcement of federal immigration law.

“it places an unfunded mandate on the city to assist in federal immigration enforcement”

Staff explained Initiative 95 would require local and state police to report arrestees not verified as lawfully present to federal authorities, conflicting with state laws on immigration information sharing. Council later straw-polled opposing it, citing the city's policy against unfunded federal immigration-enforcement mandates.

Commissioner Loachamin said the ankle monitoring work in question is run through the Sheriff's Office contract at the Alternative Sentencing Facility, also called the Joe Pelle Center. She said director Rob McMahon is researching the matter and that any change would need board direction.

A public commenter said BI Incorporated, a Gunbarrel company owned by a private prison operator, is ICE's sole supplier of ankle monitors and case tracking, and that Boulder County Community Justice Services contracts with it. She asked the county to add ethics rules to procurement and to stop doing business with ICE contractors.

“BI is ISIS soul provider of electronic monitoring devices.”

BCHA Executive Director Susanna Lopez Baker told the board HUD now requires the housing authority to track mixed-immigration-status households in a separate portal and share that data with DHS by August 3. Commissioner Levy said any errors in that data could have consequences far beyond losing housing, including deportation, and pressed staff to be accurate since BCHA is not an immigration enforcement or citizenship agency.

“we're not an immigration enforcement agency. We're not law enforcement.”