Neighbors,

We wanted to reach out to you with some urgent information and a call to action regarding Amendment 81 which is on the November ballot and will be very harmful to our communities if passed.

Currently Colorado has a law on the books (SB25-276) which prevents local and state law enforcement from notifying or cooperating with ICE in the absence of a Judicial Warrant. If passed Amendment 81 will permanently amend the Colorado Constitution and override current state laws limiting ICE authority in Colorado and include these additional requirements

State and local law enforcement must notify ICE within 72 hours after a Coloradan is charged with a crime if:

• The person doesn’t have documents on them that prove they are a citizen or lawfully present in the United States; and
• They have a previous felony conviction and are accused of any crime; or
• They have been accused of a violent crime.

As you can see, Amendment 81 not only undoes SB25-276, it adds requirements far beyond what has ever existed in Colorado. It’s critical to keep this amendment from passing, so we need everyone’s help in getting the word out to defeat it.

Action items to defeat Amendment 81:

• Vote No on Amendment 81!!
• Print and distribute fliers to increase awareness in our communities.
• Find new people to reach out to via Indivisible Neighbor2Neighbor program which will provide a list of liberal leaning folks in your neighborhood that don’t always vote.
• Contact candidates running to be your local, state and national representatives and ask that they add ‘No on 81’ to their talking points, campaign canvasing, calls, and materials.
• Talk to your friends, family, and neighbors using the talking points below and explain the risks this amendment poses (downloadable bi-lingual pdf here).
  • We should limit ICE’s power in Colorado, not expand it.
    • Colorado has laws that protect our communities from ICE overreach. Amendment 81 would expand ICE’s power in Colorado, requiring local law enforcement to act as an arm of Trump’s deportation machine. We should vote no because we need to limit the power of ICE agents, not expand it.
  • Don’t open the door for all Coloradans, including citizens, to be targeted by ICE based on how they look or talk.
    • Amendment 81 opens the door for ICE to target all Coloradans because it requires the law enforcement to report any Coloradan accused of certain crimes to ICE if they suspect they are not here legally based on their appearance, accent, or other personal characteristics – even if they aren’t undocumented. We should vote no on Amendment 81 because it requires law enforcement to make a judgment that could encourage racial profiling.
  • Coloradans deserve due process rights even if they don’t have their documents on them.
    • Amendment 81 requires local law enforcement to report anyone to ICE if they cannot determine their lawful presence and they do not have documents on them, like a passport that proves their citizenship, even if they have not been found guilty of a crime. A missing passport shouldn’t land Coloradans in the hands of ICE. We should vote no on Amendment 81 because it denies due process for anyone who is accused of a crime.
  • Coloradans have a right to innocence until proven guilty.
    • Under Amendment 81, local law enforcement would be required to report someone to ICE simply because they have been charged with a crime and can’t prove citizenship – all before any court has found them guilty of the charges. We should vote no on Amendment 81 because charging someone is not the same as finding them guilty, and this measure would deny due process to people who are accused, but not found guilty of anything.

Please take as many of the actions above as you can, and pass the word as widely as possible. Defeating Amendment 81 is key to keeping all of us safe.

The WKUS Team