In his August 23 column contrasting Colorado gubernatorial candidates Bill Ritter (D) and Bob Beauprez (R), Denver Post columnist Al Knight touted Beauprez's plan to “deal with 'sanctuary cities' ” without noting that no “sanctuary” cities -- as defined by a recently enacted Colorado statute -- apparently exist in the state. A Colorado law enacted May 1 prohibits such “sanctuary” policies, which it defines as “local government ordinances or policies that prohibit local officials, including peace officers, from communicating or cooperating with federal officials with regard to the immigration status of any person within the state.” The Rocky Mountain News reported June 11 that an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) spokesman said he knows of “no Colorado city that has a policy against calling ICE.”

Knight was referring to Beauprez's “8-point Immigration Reform Plan,” released August 18, which states: “We must enforce the ban on 'sanctuary cities.' ” Knight also wrote, “Ritter's official statement on illegal immigration is about five paragraphs long and does little more than endorse existing federal laws and recently passed Colorado legislation.” Beauprez, Knight claimed, “has advanced an eight-point plan that is arguably much tougher.”

As Colorado Media Matters has noted, however, a Rocky Mountain News investigation published June 11 “found that some local law-enforcement officials indeed fail to turn in immigrants, including some criminals they know are here illegally. But it has nothing to do with any sanctuary policy.” According to the News, local officials “say they know ICE lacks the people or places to deal with them, a message ICE officials have delivered personally. And local jails are too full to hold them while deportation orders are processed.” The News article also quoted Carl Rusnok, an ICE spokesman for Colorado, saying: “There aren't any cities in Colorado that refuse to call us. ... I know of no Colorado city that has a policy against calling ICE.” The same News investigation also reported, “Denver sends ICE the names of jailed foreign-born inmates. So do other counties in Colorado.”

According to its website, ICE “is the largest investigative branch of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The agency was created after 9/11 by combining the law enforcement arms of the former Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) and the former U.S. Customs Service, to more effectively enforce our immigration and customs laws and to protect the United States against terrorist attacks.”

Knight's column is the third instance documented by Colorado Media Matters in which the Post uncritically has repeated statements about “sanctuary cities.” From Knight's August 23 Denver Post column, “The task facing Bob Beauprez in his run for governor”:

The relative position of the two men dictates the way they approach a given issue. For example, Ritter's official statement on illegal immigration is about five paragraphs long and does little more than endorse existing federal laws and recently passed Colorado legislation. He, in fact, endorses a federal proposal that would offer illegal immigrants a “path to citizenship.”

Beauprez meanwhile has advanced an eight-point plan that is arguably much tougher. One proposal is that bail should be denied to any illegal immigrant subject to deportation, more specifically any illegal immigrant charged with drunken driving or a serious crime. Other steps deal with “sanctuary cities” and cooperation between federal and state agencies that would allow localities to enforce federal immigration laws.