Speaker of the Colorado House of Representatives Julie McCluskie speaks on the opening day of the 2025 session of the Legislature at the Capitol. (Lindsey Toomer/Colorado Newsline)
During her remarks last week on the first day of the Colorado Legislature’s 2025 session, Speaker Julie McCluskie alluded to the second Trump administration’s plan to carry out mass deportations of undocumented people, which President-elect Donald Trump has suggested could have a particular focus on Aurora.
“Immigrants are an integral part of Colorado’s diverse and thriving communities,” the Democrat said during an address to the state House of Representatives. “Coloradans do not support mass deportations, separating families, or detaining parents at their children’s schools.”
McCluskie added that Rep. Elizabeth Velasco, a Glenwood Springs Democrat who was born in Mexico, is “leading our work on this issue, alongside the Aurora delegation,” suggesting a bill to help deter mass deportations in Colorado is soon to come.
In the opening days of the session, there were indications everywhere that Democrats, who control both chambers of the Legislature, plan to spend much of their energy this year hardening the state against MAGA extremism. Their remarks reflect justified fears that a Republican-led federal government is a threat to reproductive rights, civil rights, LGBTQ+ Coloradans, workers and voters. As McCluskie’s speech indicated, they’re preparing to shield the state from institutionalized cruelty emanating from Washington.
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Since the November election, many Coloradans, who voted for Vice President Kamala Harris by a double-digit margin, have expressed anxiety about the dangers of a second Trump term. Colorado’s Democratic legislative leaders are now acting on some tangible protections.
Take Senate Bill 25-001, the very first bill introduced in the Senate. Dubbed the Colorado Voting Rights Act, this sprawling legislation would, among other provisions, expand voter access for people whose primary language isn’t English, prohibit government bodies from taking any action that results in voter suppression, and create a new state office charged with collecting and maintaining elections information on demographics, election results and voting.
One of the bill sponsors, Sen. Julie Gonzalaes, said a state Voting Rights Act is necessary to “safeguard our institutions from the growing existential threats that lie ahead.”
The bill is backed by Colorado Common Cause, the ACLU of Colorado and more than two dozen other advocacy groups, which similarly pitched it in emergency terms.
“As voting rights at the federal level face unprecedented threats, Colorado can pave a different path forward,” the coalition of groups said in a statement.
Senate President James Coleman in his own opening remarks last week cited the Colorado Voting Rights Act as one of the “proactive measures that will ensure our freedoms.”
“We are days away from an administration that ran on division and fear, and promises that could turn our systems and our communities on their head,” Coleman said.
As if to underscore the risks that MAGA poses to democratic institutions, six state House Republicans on the first day of the session voted to reject a committee report to certify the results of the November election. As Newsline’s Sara Wilson reported, this is “a typically uneventful procedural vote to attest that the representatives in the room won their election.”
The six Republicans were Reps. Ken DeGraaf of Colorado Springs, Scott Bottoms of Colorado Springs, Brandi Bradley of Littleton, Stephanie Luck of Penrose, Larry Suckla of Cortez and Ron Weinberg of Loveland.
The most prominent expression of defiance against the Trump menace came from Democratic Gov. Jared Polis, during his State of the State address last Thursday.
“Our values and our way of life are not dependent on who is in the White House or Congress. I refuse to allow the disagreement, division and disorder in Washington, D.C., to deter us in Colorado,” he said.
But, in a baffling contradiction, he undermined his own message when he voiced support for some elements of Trump’s deportation plans. He called on Trump to “secure the border, stop human trafficking, and stop the illegal flow of guns and drugs, and we welcome more federal help to detain and deport dangerous criminals.”
These goals might sound legitimate in isolation. But, as Polis knows, the context is a mass deportation plan that Trump and his allies promote with exaggerated claims of criminal activity and racist rhetoric that casts every undocumented resident as part of an “invasion.” He knows that the plan could involve undocumented people being rounded up in detention camps and families being torn apart. The plan deserves only unqualified condemnation, and even partial approval signals that Polis is only partially serious about his commitment to the Colorado values he cites.
The Legislature has set out to accomplish many goals this year that have little to do with D.C. Lawmakers in the majority want to further address the affordable housing crisis, pursue additional gun violence prevention measures, reduce the cost of living, and figure out how to handle a huge budget deficit.
But the threat to Coloradans of a fascist in the Oval Office cannot be ignored. Democrats in the General Assembly are right to find ways the state can enact protections.
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