Reading from the website of the anti-illegal immigration organization Ohio Jobs & Justice PAC on his November 16 show, Peter Boyles of 630 KHOW-AM falsely declared that “according to the Congressional Research Service,” the Colorado cities of Denver, Federal Heights, Fort Collins, Lafayette, Thornton, and Westminster are so-called “sanctuary cities” for illegal immigrants. While the website Boyles read from dubiously cited the Congressional Research Service (CRS) as its source for listing Denver as a “sanctuary city,” Denver is not in fact identified in any of the recent CRS reports on the subject as a city with a sanctuary policy. Moreover, the most recent update of CRS' “Enforcing Immigration Law: The Role of State and Local Law Enforcement” singled out the state of Colorado as an example of a “jurisdiction[]” that has “taken steps to reject what they characterize as 'sanctuary policies' and encourage their law enforcement officers to cooperate with ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement].”

Boyles read from the “Sanctuary Cities, USA” Web page, which contains the article “Sanctuary Cities: What are they?” by OJJPAC.org founder Steve Salvi and a list of purported sanctuary cities.

From the November 16 broadcast of 630 KHOW-AM's The Peter Boyles Show:

BOYLES: Oh, by the way, bringing in all this junk to work. For those of you in radio land, “Sanctuary Cities, USA. Sanctuary Cities: What are they?” Dateline Steve Salvi: “Despite a 1996 federal law that illegal immigration reform and immigration responsibility requires local governments to cooperate with Department of Homeland Security's immigration and enforcement, large urban cities have adopted so-called sanctuary city. Generally, sanctuary policies instruct city officials not to notify federal government of illegal aliens in the community. The policy also ends the distinction between legal and illegal in offering benefits from city services as well.”

The other day, apparently on Rosen's show -- Mike Rosen on 850 KOA -- the Looper [Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper] was there and apparently had to take a phone call on this, and the Looper said it wasn't. Denver's not a sanctuary city. “List of US Sanctuary Cities.” Let's go to -- that's dateline, we can start in California; God, they all are. Colorado. Gee, Denver's there, according to the Congressional Research Service. So is Federal Heights; so is Fort Collins; so is Lafayette, Thornton, and Westminster, Colorado. You know, we're idiots. You're an idiot. It's like idiot day again.

In a note on its “List of US Sanctuary Cities,” OJJPAC acknowledged that "[n]ot all listings have been independently confirmed by OJJPAC." It also placed the notation “documented by reader” next to its listing for Lafayette and provided no attribution for the other cities Boyles named. At the bottom of the list OJJPAC indicated its “research resources” as follows:

Research Resources (incomplete listing)

• Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress
• CRS Report for Congress, Enforcing Immigration Law: The Role of State and Local Law Enorcement, Updated August 14, 2006

CRS does issue a series of reports for Congress titled “Enforcing Immigration Law: The Role of State and Local Law Enforcement.” In the August 14, 2006, update of the report, CRS stated, “Localities, and in some cases individual police departments, in such areas that are considered 'sanctuary cities,' have utilized various mechanisms to ensure that unauthorized aliens who may be present in their jurisdiction illegally are not turned in to federal authorities.” However, as Colorado Media Matters has noted, no Colorado jurisdiction appeared in the 2006 report's list of "[c]ities and counties currently that have sanctuary policies":

Cities and counties currently that have sanctuary policies are; Anchorage, AK, Fairbanks, AK, Chandler, AZ, Fresno, CA, Los Angeles, CA, San Diego, CA, San Francisco, CA, Sonoma County, CA, Evanston, IL, Cicero, IL, Cambridge, MA, Orleans, MA, Portland, ME, Baltimore, MD, Takoma Park, MD, Ann Arbor, MI, Detroit, MI, Minneapolis, MN, Durham, NC, Albuquerque, NM, Aztec, NM, Rio Arriba, County, NM, Sante Fe, NM, New York, NY, Ashland, OR, Gaston, OR, Marion County, OR, Austin, TX, Houston, TX, Katy, TX, Seattle, WA, and Madison, WI.

CRS' August 30 update of the report does not list jurisdictions “that have sanctuary policies,” but does include a passage on “State and Local Policies Regarding Immigration Enforcement” that notes in 2006 Colorado adopted legislation “requiring all peace officers to cooperate with state and federal officials regarding immigration law”:

State and Local Policies Regarding Immigration Enforcement

Some jurisdictions have, through resolutions, executive orders, or city ordinances expressly defined or limited their role and the activities of their employees regarding immigration enforcement. ⁸⁵ Critics of this approach maintain that these kinds of policies can create “sanctuary” cities that ultimately encourage illegal immigration. Supporters of these policies, on the other hand, maintain that they are called for by resource and legal constraints, the need to avoid the disruption of critical municipal services, or basic human rights considerations. Although there is no generally accepted definition of what policies constitute “sanctuary” the issue has become increasingly contentious.

Other jurisdictions have taken steps to reject what they characterize as “sanctuary policies” and encourage their law enforcement officers to cooperate with ICE. For example, on May 1, 2006, the General Assembly of Colorado passed legislation requiring all peace officers to cooperate with state and federal officials regarding immigration law. The law also requires each governing body to submit written documentation that it has informed its peace officers in writing of their responsibilities regarding such cooperation and statistics regarding the number of reports made annually to ICE.⁸⁶

Colorado Media Matters also has previously noted the May 1, 2006, law that CRS cited. Furthermore, in rebutting Boyles' August 21 and August 22 claims that Denver is “a sanctuary city,” Colorado Media Matters pointed out that according to a June 18 Rocky Mountain News article, in compliance with the law's requirement that “all cities and counties [] report any suspected illegal immigrants arrested or cited for crimes” to ICE, Denver submitted the names of 1,351 suspected illegal immigrants from June through December of 2006. Of those, only 74 were not jailed. Moreover, a June 11, 2006, News article reported that while some local law enforcement officials in Colorado fail to turn in immigrants, “it has nothing to do with any sanctuary policy.” The article also reported that ICE spokesman Carl Rusnok said he knows of “no Colorado city that has a policy against calling ICE.”