Voices for Justice Legislative Alert–We Urge the Colorado General Assembly to Pass SB26-005!
A mere ten years ago, most Americans could not have forecast the full-scale assault on constitutional rights and legislative protections that culminated in the gunning down of American citizens exercising their constitutional prerogatives by agents of the American government in the streets of Minneapolis. But starting nine-years ago, and with the exception of a blessed four-year hiatus, it has become clear that American residents, whether citizens, either native-born or naturalized, or immigrants and refugees pursuing the burdensome but legislatively-established process of seeking citizenship, can no longer expect protection from the very federal departments and agencies that have been appointed to champion our rights and guarantee justice for all and provide recourse when restraints on governmental power have been abused and violated.
Not even the Department of Justice itself, which under this administration has been marshalled to abandon its independence of function free and insulated from the political agenda of the White House, now protects the basic freedoms of Americans, nor even the federal judiciary, supervised by a Supreme Court that has aggressively exposed its ideological program of favor for some and fear for many.
We have seen with our own eyes, either in person or viewing cell-phone and television news footage, abusive episodes of dragging and beating unarmed people of color and protesters exercising their constitutional rights, and others being pulled from their homes and workplaces and schools, such as we thought only possible in foreign dictatorships and lands known for military brutality. These are now dismissed routinely by federal officials as “good policing” or removing “the worst of the worst” as promised, without trial, without even judicial warrant, and even young schoolchildren classed with murderers and rapists.
Only signaled during the first Trump presidency, rule by special interest, private prejudice, and even personal whim have become the operative standard which neither principles of federal jurisprudence nor administrative discipline seem capable of resisting. It is therefore left to individual states to provide remedies for the violation of the most basic ingredients of freedom and democracy now being experienced by their citizens and residents. SB26-005 (Rights Violation in Immigration Enforcement Remedy), now being considered by the Colorado State Senate, would establish a civil right of remedy for violation of one’s constitutional rights during immigration “enforcement.” It is a necessary and reasonable effort to afford a measure of justice at a time when the federal apparatus designed and appointed to protect civil rights itself constitutes the principal enemy of those rights.
During Senate committee hearings on February 2, objections were raised that the passage of the bill would place an untenable financial burden on the state and its counties and municipalities, presumably because of the need to defend such lawsuits. For this, the solution is simple: state, county, and municipal law enforcement officers must not violate the civil rights of Coloradoans, either as principal actors or in support of federal agents who transgress the Constitution. In the meantime, no victim of unwarranted force or violence by legal authorities should be bereft of recourse and remedy, and no supporter of law and order should be alarmed by the prospect of seeing the fundamental laws of our land upheld and ordered norms of public protection observed within the state of Colorado.
The Colorado State Senate and House of Representatives should pass, and the governor should sign, SB26-005 in order to guarantee a right of redress against overreach by federal agencies and agents through adjudication in the courts of this state. The lead article in the Perspective section of The Denver Post on February 1, written by two former DHS officials, is arresting testimony to the absolute urgency of positive action on this bill.
– Bruce Taylor is a member of “Voices for Justice” of the Colorado Council of Churches and the St. John’s Episcopal Cathedral Migrant Interest Group, and a retired minister member of the Presbytery of Denver, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), as well as a retired member of the Colorado Bar.
