The contempt for law enforcement among ruling Democrats at the State Capitol has escalated — from reckless to delusional. 

It was in 2020 that the Democratic majority in the legislature, led by its soft-on-crime political fringe, revoked qualified immunity from law officers across our state. It has had a chilling effect on law enforcement ever since. Men and women in uniform have the specter of a lawsuit hanging over their every action because they could face personal liability. 

This week, our legislature went after the feds. Majority Democrats on the state Senate Judiciary Committee pushed through a proposal Monday to give anyone injured during an immigration enforcement operation the ability to sue federal agents in state court. As reported by our news affiliate Colorado Politics, Senate Bill 26-005 would allow for “legal or equitable relief” if an agent “violates” the U.S. Constitution while participating in an immigration enforcement action.

It’s the handiwork of Democratic state Sens. Julie Gonzales of Denver and Mike Weissman of Aurora,  two veteran hardliners in the Capitol’s anti-cop crowd. They have worked for years to weaken law enforcement in our state as well as to bar it from cooperating with federal authorities on immigration enforcement. SB26-005 would see to both priorities.

It’s an attempt, of course, to capitalize on controversy over recent U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions in Minnesota that resulted in the shooting deaths of two anti-ICE protesters intervening in agency operations against illegal immigrants. As next fall’s mid-term election approaches, the bill plays to the political cheap seats deep in Democratic Party ranks, where every act of defiance against federal immigration law enforcement is met with cheers.

But if the 2020 legislation stripping Colorado law officers of qualified immunity was a mockery of justice, this attempt to do the same to ICE is over the top. It’s also probably a fantasy.

Do states even have the power to permit lawsuits against federal law officers for acts carried out in the line of duty? And how would it be enforced? It’s a safe bet nobody has thought that through — and the likes of Gonzales and Wessman probably don’t care. They only seem bent on scoring political points with the most vocal activists among their party’s progressives.

In other words, it stands to have little effect on ICE or other federal law enforcement agencies.

However, the bill accomplishes two other things — even before it passes the legislature and is signed into law. 

For one thing, it pointlessly picks another fight with the Trump administration. Our state already has felt the sting of Trump’s trademark tit-for-tat in the wake of previous provocations — incessant denunciations by Colorado’s Democratic elected officials; obsessive-compulsive lawsuits against the administration by our state’s Democratic attorney general, etc. It only serves to paint Colorado into a corner — opposite the president in the political boxing ring.

Meanwhile, the bill also cements Colorado’s status as a sanctuary for illegal immigration — including its criminal element. The legislature has enacted a series of laws barring state cooperation with the federal agencies on immigration enforcement; the mayor of Colorado’s capital city has welcomed illegal immigrants with open arms and generous subsidies; the Colorado Attorney General’s Office even sued a lowly sheriff’s deputy last year for inadvertently informing federal agents about an illegal immigrant he had pulled over on a routine traffic stop.

Really, how many times must Colorado’s political leaders remind our nation they have no respect for U.S. borders? And no respect for those who protect them.