Trump-appointed judge blocks blue state's crackdown on ICE detention centerhttps://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-appointed-judge-blocks-blue-states-crackdown-ice-detention-centerA Trump-appointed federal judge dealt a blow to Colorado’s effort to ramp up oversight of an ICE detention center by temporarily blocking key provisions in a state law after finding the state likely overstepped its authority.
Chief U.S. District Judge Daniel Domenico issued the preliminary injunction Thursday, ruling that Colorado likely crossed a constitutional line in a state law by imposing new requirements specifically targeting the GEO Group’s Aurora ICE Processing Center, which operates under a federal contract and is the state's lone ICE detention center.
"Here, GEO has shown that it is singled out for a special bill that applies to no other facility," Domenico wrote.
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Democratic Colorado Gov. Jared Polis signed House Bill 26-1276 into law June 4, expanding state and local oversight of immigration detention centers.
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"And though Colorado argues that the law only brings GEO into compliance with existing state regulations applied to other detention facilities, that law singles out this one category of facility for a separately defined set of restrictions and rulemaking," Domenico wrote.
"And that is sufficient to establish that HB 1276 discriminates against GEO based on its status as a federal contractor."
This may have been a Bill of Attainder, making the facility a target of regulation unique to the facility without evidence of actual crime or abuse. The decision rightfully bodes ill for states', counties', and communities' efforts to block by lawfare the building of ICE detention centers (my home Santa Clara County being among such). Not that I expect Trump-Haters to learn.
