Denver judge rules state employees do not have to comply with ICE subpoena in whistleblower lawsuit

By: Colette Bordelon with Denver 7 News

Posted 9:07 PM, Jun 26, 2025

State and city officials praised a Denver district judge's decision to block an order directing employees to comply with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement subpoenas as "a victory for everyone in Colorado."

The ruling comes after Scott Moss, Director of the Division of Labor Standards and Statistics, filed suit against Gov. Jared Polis over the order, which Moss said was illegal and violated the community's trust. 

Gov. Polis directed state employees to comply with an "Immigration Enforcement Subpoena" for information on 35 individuals who the Department of Homeland Security said were listed as sponsors of unaccompanied children in the U.S. illegally. The governor's office said the federal subpoena concerned potential crimes against minors and was in accordance with state law.

During a news conference Thursday, Moss praised the judge's ruling and said that the hearings revealed there was no evidence of any harm to children. He claimed the subpoena was an "effort to work with, and say 'yes' to ICE's overly aggressive deportation campaign against our community, against immigrants, drafting in state workers as the unwilling troops in the ICE army."

"This is not about the governor or myself or any state agency," Moss said during a press conference a day after the ruling. "It's about the families, the caregivers, and yes, the children that the state feigned concern for, but that in reality, ICE was targeting."

In a statement, a spokesperson for the governor said they are "reviewing the court’s preliminary ruling to determine next steps in this matter," and that they "will abide by the court’s decision."

In his lawsuit, Moss claims the governor directed him and other state employees to turn over personal information about people providing homes to unaccompanied minors to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in violation of Colorado law.

The lawsuit asserts that on April 24, the state received a subpoena from ICE seeking information about people providing homes to unaccompanied minors. At the time, Moss believed turning over that information to ICE would be illegal under Colorado law, which bans state and local governments from sharing personal information with federal immigration officials.

Attorneys for Moss argue that Polis made the decision to honor the request from ICE.

"When immigrants report illegal conduct to the state or use state services they've paid into — like unemployment, like family benefits, or when immigrants use basic services, like health care, sending their kids to school — disclosing the personally identifying information of immigrants and others who did nothing more than use state services and report violations to the state that the state asked them to report would be a betrayal of trust," said Moss. "It would break our promises that we made as state workers, as leaders of state agencies, and yes, as the governor. It would break the trust that we invited and asked immigrants and others to put in their public servants and their institutions."

Read more at Denver 7 News