Colorado Congress approves law prohibiting arrests on courthouse grounds

Newsroom El Comercio de Colorado

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The Colorado legislature passed a law that prohibits detentions in local courts and their surroundings. SB20-083 restricts arrests in state courts only to those cases where there is a court order. It allows judges to issue a “protection order against civil arrest,” that is, non-criminal cases, for people entering or leaving the court after serving their hearings or attending those hearings, either before, during or after of a trial.

Law SB20-083 extends that protection by prohibiting “unjustifiable or illegal arrests” in or near the courts by “local, state or federal officials.” In presenting his proposal last January, Senator Julie Gonzales indicated that the law was necessary to “preserve the orderly and efficient operation” of the courts and, moreover, to “protect the dignity, independence and integrity of judicial proceedings.”

Message from CIRC

After hearing the final vote, Cristian Solano Córdova, spokesman for the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition (CIRC), thanked the 40 Democratic representatives who backed Senator Gonzales’ project. “The Colorado House of Representatives expressed itself in favor of justice in the courts. The representatives expressed themselves in favor of equity towards all immigrants,” said Solano Córdova.