Gov. Jared Polis on Thursday signed a bill that broadens Colorado’s power to conduct health and safety inspections at federal immigration detention centers.

Additionally, the legislation requires the Attorney General’s Office to craft a policy on when personally identifying information must be shared with federal immigration authorities under state or federal law.

It’s the latest policy to get adopted in Colorado, a blue state that has passed successive “sanctuary” laws in the last several years and which has been in the crosshairs of the Trump administration amid the latter’s crackdown on illegal immigration. Colorado officials have adopted a confrontational stance against both the administration and Trump’s policies, routinely criticizing the president and suing over an array of issues.

Broadly speaking, “sanctuary” policies restrict or prohibit cooperation with federal immigration authorities. Some of Colorado’s leaders, notably Polis, have insisted the state is not a “sanctuary” jurisdiction.

House Bill 1276 — sponsored by Reps. Elizabeth Velasco, D‑Glenwood Springs, and Lorena Garcia, D‑Adams County, along with Aurora Democratic Sens. Iman Jodeh and Mike Weissman — doubles down on the existing ban on state and local employees sharing someone’s immigration status with federal authorities by extending civil‑penalty liability to employers, as well.

Backers framed the legislation as necessary given the “unacceptable conditions” at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities. Critics said the funding allocated for

“As state legislators, we have a responsibility to do everything we can to keep our communities safe from the violent and unconstitutional overreach of ICE,” said Jodeh. “We hear all too often about death, sickness, overcrowding, and other unacceptable conditions in ICE detention facilities, but there is almost no transparency. This law is about increasing oversight, ensuring frequent inspections, and protecting health and safety.”

The measure, which passed through both chambers on party-line votes, allows the Colorado Department of Health and Environment to conduct more frequent inspections into the food safety, water quality, and confinement conditions at immigration detention centers in the state.

Colorado currently has one such major immigration detention facility in Aurora, but there are several temporary holding facilities across the state.

Republicans argued that the more than $200,000 outlined in the bill’s fiscal note over the next two years would be better spent elsewhere, such as the state’s strained health care system and deteriorating roads.

“I’m still struggling with the idea that while Colorado roads are deteriorating, our health care system is failing, students in K-12 are not performing at grade level, and our budget is out of control, we are spending time debating federal policy that I struggle to believe is acting in a manner that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle want me to believe it is,” Rep. Ryan Gonzalez, R-Greeley, told bill sponsors during a debate last month.

Sponsors maintained that HB 1276 would be budget‑neutral, as it establishes a new fee on immigration detention facilities to fund the inspections.

New law criminalizes getting a worker’s identification documents

Polis also signed into law House Bill 1283, which makes it a criminal act for an employer to confiscate, retain or demand for an employee’s identification documents with narrow exemptions, such as for verifying a person’s employment eligibility status.

The measure — sponsored by Reps. Junie Joseph, D‑Denver, and Naquetta Ricks, D‑Aurora, along with Sens. Adrienne Benavidez, D‑Denver, and Janice Marchman, D‑Loveland — also requires employers to give workers written notice of this newly created prohibition in their own language if is not English.

Additionally, the bill classifies handing over an employee’s identification to federal immigration authorities or threatening to do so as a “bias” motivated crime.

House Bill 1283 passed on a party-line vote in the Senate and a 41-23 vote in the House, with all Republicans and one Democrat, Rep. Cecelia Espenoza of Denver, voting against it.