DENVER — A Denver District Court judge will decide whether Colorado can respond to a federal immigration subpoena after a state employee sued Democratic Gov. Jared Polis this month to prevent the state from sharing personal information with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

During a court hearing Monday, a member of the governor's cabinet revealed the state has cooperated with ICE at least once before.

The current dispute centers on an April 24 Department of Homeland Security/Immigration and Customs Enforcement subpoena seeking employment records and contact information for three dozen adults who sponsor unaccompanied immigrant minors.

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Colorado law prohibits sharing information with ICE unless it involves a court-issued subpoena or relates to a criminal investigation. However, Barela could not specify what criminal investigation justified compliance when questioned by Moss’s attorney, Laura Wolf.

"Sitting here today on behalf of the governor's office, is there any specific criminal investigation that the governor's office contends this subpoena was issued in relation to?" Wolf asked.

After six seconds of silence, Barela responded, "Not that I'm aware of."

The hearing revealed this was not the first such subpoena. When asked about previous ICE requests, Barela testified, "I believe we received one in March of this year." When asked if that subpoena "was responded to,” Barela said, “I believe it was.”

Barela said the decision to comply with the April 24 subpoena came after meetings involving himself, the governor's staff, a chief strategy officer and members of the Attorney General's Office.

“At the end of the first meeting, what was the determination or consensus about whether to disclose PII (personally identifiable information) in response to the April 24th subpoena?” Wolf asked.

“There was consensus that we were not in violation of the statute,” Barela said.

“Did any member of your team express any opinions to the contrary, saying that they believed that it would be a violation of that law?” Wolf asked.

“I think people were still uncertain, but I think they were reassured after that meeting that, you know, there was the attorney general's office and the governor's office supporting that we were aligned in doing our job,” Barela said.

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