WASHINGTON | Aurora was on and is now apparently off a Trump administration list of “sanctuary jurisdictions” and a local city lawmaker said on a social media post she intervened to make it happen.
“I understand that Aurora was originally listed as a sanctuary city,” Jurinsky said in a social media post Friday morning. “The Department of Homeland Security has made an update and Aurora has been removed from the list. I appreciate the communication and help I received in making this happen.”
Jurinsky did not immediately return requests for comment.
City officials repeated past statements that Aurora lawmakers have passed resolutions affirming that the city refutes the label of being a “sanctuary city.”
“The Aurora City Council affirmed that in a vote in 2017 and then again in February 2024,” city spokesperson Ryan Luby said in a statement Friday. “As we always have, we work with our federal partners and follow federal law and directives as they apply to our community. Nothing has changed.”
Thursday, the Homeland Security put Aurora and more than 500 “sanctuary jurisdictions” across the country on notice that the Trump administration views them as obstructing immigration enforcement as it attempts to increase pressure on communities it believes are standing in the way of the president’s mass deportations agenda.
When asked Friday why and how Aurora was removed from the list, Homeland Security officials would say only that it is subject to regular revision.
“”Designation of a sanctuary jurisdiction is based on the evaluation of numerous factors, including self-identification as a sanctuary jurisdiction, noncompliance with Federal law enforcement in enforcing immigration laws, restrictions on information sharing, and legal protections for illegal aliens,” a senior spokesperson for Homeland Security said in a statement. “The list is actively reviewed, will be regularly updated, and can be changed at any time.”
The State of Colorado and Denver, as well as two of Aurora’s overlying counties, are on Trump’s list. Most other Colorado counties are as well across the state.
“Colorado is not a sanctuary state, despite this completely incorrect designation by DHS,” Gov. Jared Polis spokesperson Eric Maruyama said in a statement Thursday evening. “Colorado and its cities and counties prioritize public safety, and local and state law enforcement work closely with federal law enforcement to apprehend dangerous criminals, whether they are from this country or not. We cannot comment further as DHS did not provide information as to how the determination of states, counties, and cities were made.”
Jurinsky has claimed in past public meetings to have ties to the Trump administration. In October, she appeared at an Trump campaign rally at the Gaylord Hotel in Aurora in support of Trump’s push against Venezuelan gang immigrants, which he falsely claimed have overrun the city and much of Colorado. Trump announced there that a nationwide mass deportation campaign would be called “Operation Aurora.”
For weeks, Trump repeated and promoted false claims that immigrants in Ohio were eating dogs and cats, and that Aurora was overwhelmed by immigrants.
Aurora police have walked a fine line saying that they cooperate with federal immigration officials in detaining immigrants suspected of crimes, but that police do not and would not ask anyone about immigration status when encountering people in public during the course of their work.
The department on Thursday published a list of the jurisdictions and said each one will receive formal notification that the government has deemed them noncompliant and if they’re believed to be in violation of any federal criminal statutes. The list was published on the department’s website.
Arapahoe County officials said it has received no notification of the list.
“We are unclear as to why Arapahoe County appears on this list, as we comply with federal laws and uphold both the U.S. and Colorado Constitutions,” Arapahoe County spokesperson Jill McGranahan said in a statement. “Until we receive more information or official guidance from DHS, it would be inappropriate for us to speculate or provide further comment.”
Requests made Thursday to the White House and Homeland Security about criteria used to make the list was not immediately returned. Amid the more than 500 citations, nearly every populous county and state were named.
“These sanctuary city politicians are endangering Americans and our law enforcement in order to protect violent criminal illegal aliens,” DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said in a press release.
The Trump administration has repeatedly targeted communities, states and jurisdictions that it says aren’t doing enough to help Immigration and Customs Enforcement as it seeks to make good on President Donald Trump’s campaign promises to remove millions of people in the country illegally.
The list was compiled using a number of factors, including whether the cities or localities identified themselves as sanctuary jurisdictions, how much they complied already with federal officials enforcing immigration laws, if they had restrictions on sharing information with immigration enforcement or had any legal protections for people in the country illegally, according to the department.
Trump signed an executive order on April 28 requiring the secretary of Homeland Security and the attorney general to publish a list of states and local jurisdictions that they considered to be obstructing federal immigration laws. The list is to be regularly updated.
Federal departments and agencies, working with the Office of Management and Budget, would then be tasked with identifying federal grants or contracts with those states or local jurisdictions that the federal government identified as “sanctuary jurisdictions” and suspending or terminating the money, according to the executive order.
If “sanctuary jurisdictions” are notified and the Trump administration determines that they “remain in defiance,” the attorney general and the secretary of Homeland Security are then empowered to pursue whatever “legal remedies and enforcement measures” they consider necessary to make them comply.
There’s no specific or legal definition of what constitutes a “sanctuary jurisdiction.” The term is often used to refer to law enforcement agencies, states or communities that don’t cooperate with immigration enforcement.
ICE enforces immigration laws nationwide, but often seeks state and local help in alerting federal authorities of immigrants wanted for deportation and holding that person until federal officers take custody.
One way that the administration seeks to enlist state and local support is through 287(g) agreements with local law enforcement agencies. Those agreements allow local law enforcement agencies to assume some immigration enforcement duties and greatly expand ICE’s capabilities. The number of those agreements has skyrocketed in just a matter of months under the Trump administration.
ICE has about 6,000 law enforcement officers — a number that has remained largely static for years — who are able to find, arrest and remove immigrants its targeting. By relying on local law enforcement, it can quickly scale up the number of staff available to help carry out Trump’s mass deportations agenda.
Communities that don’t cooperate with ICE often say they do so because immigrants then feel safer coming forward if they’re a witness to or victim of a crime. And they argue that immigration enforcement is a federal task, and they need to focus their limited dollars on fighting crime.
The Trump administration has already taken a number of steps targeting states and communities that don’t cooperate with ICE — and has met with pushback in the courts. One executive order issued by Trump directs the Attorney General and Homeland Security Secretary to withhold federal money from sanctuary jurisdictions. Another directs federal agencies to ensure that payments to state and local governments do not “abet so-called ‘sanctuary’ policies that seek to shield illegal aliens from deportation.”
Thank you Councilwoman Jurinsky. And thank you for drawing attention to the nationwide problem of widespread illegal immigrant crime in our country. We are all indebted to you.
Thank you Danielle and the Aurora Council for standing up for the citizens of this great town.
Let me clear up why Arapahoe County is on the list. It’s the fact that we “uphold both the U.S. and Colorado Constitutions” which frustrates the current occupant of the Oval Office. As an Arapahoe County resident, and an individual who, decades ago, swore a commitment to “uphold both the U.S. and Colorado Constitutions” please put my name down as one of the 50,000 who will stand at the state border and do my best to “bear true faith and allegiance” and putting my life’s blood on the line defending people of every race, color, creed, or national origin against all those who would strip them of even one of their rights coming under the heading of “Due Process of Law”. This would include a Commander-in-Chief who would suspend Habeas Corpus in defiance of Ex parte Milligan, all the way down to ICE officials who have pretended to authority, not just to deport persons, but to exile U.S. Citizens, without a shred of due process.
So help me God,
“Colorado is not a sanctuary state, despite this completely incorrect designation by DHS,” Gov. Jared Polis spokesperson Eric Maruyama said.”
This professional liar sounds exactly like DHS Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, telling Congress “The Border is closed and the border is secure” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zu4CIeyntV4
This illusion that Governor Polis, and these local lib politicians claim they have not fully encouraged maintaining sanctuary status for illegals at the same level as California maybe more. Now that’s not a stretch, it is the crucial figment of the Govs, and his staff’s imagination. So best to blame that pesky Aurora council woman Danielle Jurinsky, she caused the problem.
CM Jurinsky, is unwilling to reverse her course she’s charted to turn things around. With some luck, the others on Aurora council will agree with her political objective over this and firmly join her.
With Arapahoe County, it may be a bit confusing but when the DA refuses to incarcerate a 15-year-old murderer who is also an illegal alien, I can perfectly understand the County making this list.
Thank you ICE for providing the grieving family justice when DA Padden willfully and wantonly failed to do so (And note the Sentinel refuses to cover the story outright while people are talking recalling her. No news here).
Also, the Governor of South Carolina once thought that the Supremacy clause in the US Constitution didn’t apply to his state. Tiny South Carolina then lost 18,000 soldiers in the Civil War. And what was the lesson learned boys and girls?
So when is Governor Polis and and Denver Mayor Johnson raising the Confederate flag in Denver? How many fellow traitors are picking up arms to protect them? I’m sure thousands of Colorado’s gunowners are just chomping at the bit to get mowed down for them– NOT.
It’s the fact that we “uphold both the U.S. and Colorado Constitutions”…
There is no such thing as upholding BOTH the U.S. and Colorado constitutions when they conflict. This sounds a lot like the Governor of Maine and appears to be the new phrase from the left when they chose to ignore U.S. law.
Councilwoman Jurinsky is trying to smooth over her destructive rants by pretending she did a good thing with this. She did not. In fact her and her cohorts maligned Aurora in the local and national press during the recent Presidential election; in order to cozy up to extremist and maga cult members. She loved it when Trump demeaned Aurora with maga red meat and three times nationally slammed Aurora as overran by Venezuelan hard core criminals. Jurinsky as a proud and devoted sycophant stood beside Trump as he maligned Aurora with exaggerations and lies. I will not vote for Jurinsky this election year and hope you do not as well. She is a political opportunist and a political extremist. Aurora does not need her flippant attacks or the damage to Aurora done by her zealotry. To say now that she eliminated the slanderous and negative reputation of Aurora by the Trump administrations words and deeds is beyond the pale and despicable.
Councilwoman Jurinsky is my SHERO! I can’t wait for the liberal tears when she wins re-election in a landslide. The Sentinel has probably helped to make her the most famous council member in Aurora’s history.