October 7th, 2026, Denver CO

Ballots are already in mailboxes, and Amendment 81 is on them. It would write police cooperation with ICE into the Colorado Constitution. Denver Justice Project urges every voter to vote NO and return your ballot by Tuesday, November 3.

This year we have watched ICE chase, detain, and kill our neighbors. We have seen families torn apart and U.S. citizens terrorized. Amendment 81 would hand ICE a direct line into every local police department and sheriff’s office in our state. We refuse to let that happen.

What Amendment 81 would do

Amendment 81 would change the Colorado Constitution. It would require police and sheriffs to report people to ICE after charging them with certain crimes, if their immigration status can’t be confirmed within 72 hours.

That report happens after a charge, not a conviction. A person who is still presumed innocent could be handed to ICE because of one officer’s decision.

Because it is a constitutional amendment, it needs 55% of the vote to pass. And once it is in the constitution, it is very hard to undo.

Why it puts all of us in danger

It punishes people before any trial. Our system is supposed to treat people as innocent until proven guilty. Amendment 81 skips that step and sends people to ICE based on a charge alone. For an immigrant, that can mean detention and deportation for something they never did.

It opens the door to racial profiling. Unless someone happens to carry a passport, police must make a “reasonable effort” to check their status. In practice, that means officers deciding who looks or sounds like they need checking. People will be singled out for their race, their language, or their accent, including U.S. citizens.

It makes everyone less safe. When people fear that any contact with police could lead to deportation, they stop calling for help. They stop reporting crimes, stop acting as witnesses, and stay away from hospitals and schools. Denver District Attorney John Walsh and several other DAs have spoken out against Amendment 81 for this reason.

Policing and ICE are one system

As abolitionists, we know that policing and immigration detention are not separate problems. They are one system of caging and removal, and Amendment 81 would formally join them. Every arrest would become a possible path to deportation.

ICE cannot be reformed. At least 58 people have died in ICE custody since January 2025, according to the National Immigration Project. Most people ICE detains have no criminal record at all. Giving this agency more reach into our communities will only bring more harm.

And someone profits from every cage. GEO Group and CoreCivic, the private prison companies behind immigration detention, reported record profits in 2025. GEO already runs the detention center in Aurora and is preparing to open another in Hudson. More reports to ICE means more beds filled and more money for them. We want our tax dollars going to community care, not to putting our neighbors in cages.

It would erase years of organizing

Colorado did not become safer for immigrant families by accident. Community members fought for it. Since 2019, state law has barred local police from holding someone only because ICE asked them to. Later laws stopped law enforcement from sharing people’s personal information with ICE.

Much of that progress came from organizers like our partners at the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition (CIRC), who have led the fight at the Capitol for years. Amendment 81 would reverse that work and lock the reversal into our constitution. Let’s keep it the way our communities built it.

Real safety, and what you can do

Safety has never come from more cages, more police, or more deportations. It comes from stable homes, healthy kids, healthcare, and neighbors who trust each other enough to ask for help. Amendment 81 undermines all of that.

Here’s how you can help:

  • Vote NO on Amendment 81 and return your ballot by Tuesday, November 3.
  • Talk to five people in your life about why you’re voting no.
  • Read the nonpartisan Blue Book at leg.colorado.gov/bluebook to see the full text for yourself.
  • Get trained. Join a DJP Know Your Rights training to protect yourself and your neighbors.
  • Follow @denverjusticeproject for updates and actions.

It’s still abolish ICE. Vote NO on 81.

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