One Ballot Measure for 2026
For the full list of referendums we’re tracking, see our home page.
See past year referendums for this state in 2020, 2022, 2024.
Ballot Measure 95
Colorado Notification of U.S. Department of Homeland Security for Certain Criminal Charges and Immigration Status Initiative
on Ballot: November 3, 2025
See the Ballotpedia page for more information and updates.
Amends the Colorado State Constitution: requires law enforcement to notify ICE when they charge someone with a violent crime, or someone previously convicted of a felony, if they’re either in the U.S. illegally or can’t show that they aren’t.
This would overturn Colorado’s 2019 law entitled:
Protect Colorado Residents from Federal Government Overreach
This current Colorado statute says that law enforcement keeps custody, so the charge can be properly adjudicated by a court. This amendment would require turning custody over to ICE, which only has authority to deport. This short-circuits proper court procedures.
A web page and PDF fact sheet show the stats on the demographics of immigrants in Colorado.
How this Fits into
Consistent Life Issues
It Puts Unborn Children in Danger
What happens when the immigrant being treated according to this measure is pregnant? See:
Open letter to Trump Administration about ICE detention of pregnant women
We encourage you to read the whole thing, but here’s the main point:
Medical advocacy groups and investigative reporting have documented prolonged detention of women with high-risk pregnancies, delayed emergency treatment, miscarriages, and stillbirths. Simply stated, unborn children are dying because of this policy. These outcomes are not anomalies. They are the result of placing pregnant women in systems designed for incarceration, not medical care.
It Could Encourage Abortions
Colorado is a state where abortion availability is positively encouraged.
“Family separation” is included in immigration policy. Anything that threatens families will undermine support for children, and therefore in a context of abortion, pushing it will threaten unborn children.
Rachel MacNair relates a personal story that happened here in Colorado: “I was on the phone making an appointment, yet the woman sounded like she was about to burst into tears. I asked her what the problem was, and she told me: her husband and she had an argument. He was yelling loud enough that a neighbor got worried and called the police. The police had arrested him – according to her, not because he had hit her, but because they were afraid he was going to. She didn’t think he was.”
This is an illustration. Suppose she was pregnant. Then suppose her husband is an immigrant – either undocumented, or a legal immigrant but can’t find documents, or an American citizen that didn’t understand that he needed papers on hand at all times in case of arrest.
Since Colorado is a state where abortion is not only legal but promoted, if her husband isn’t merely picked up and let go on bail shortly, as is customary, but is detained indefinitely because ICE was called, I have to ask –
How safe is that baby?
Racism
ICE explicitly uses race as one criterion for suspecting someone may be in the country illegally. With this measure, American citizens who don’t think to have their papers with them proving so can be included in who’s turned over to ICE. There are already over a hundred American citizens who’ve been subjected to ICE custody. See three people’s stories here.
People who aren’t guilty of a crime are more likely to be charged with a crime if they’re a member of a racial minority. Local courts have longstanding practices to try cases with ways to be sure that the defendant’s rights are respected, while the laws are enforced against those who’ve been not merely charged but convicted. False accusations or mistaken investigations do less harm when they’re dealt with by systems designed to take them into account. Immigration enforcement has no such safeguards.
War
The US has many immigrants who’ve fled war zones, including Afghanistan and Central America.
In Colorado, as of early 2026, around 5,000 individuals are either actively seeking asylum or have temporary protected status. As of 2024 there was a backlog of 78,000 immigration cases, a large portion of which from those fleeing war. For an individual case, see:
An asylum-seeker resettled in Colorado, now his future is uncertain under the Trump administration
As of early 2026, the Trump administration has implemented a pause on all asylum application processing. The administration has also set the lowest refugee admissions cap since 1980 at 7,500 for the entire country for Fiscal Year 2026.
Therefore, it’s quite likely that this measure would exacerbate the cruelties of war by inflicting extra problems on those fleeing from it.
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If you know of any referendums in Colorado that we should cover, including ones at the city or county level, please send information to:
referendums @ consistent-life.org
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or call 816 –
753 – 2057 (Central Time)
Project Coordinator, Rachel MacNair
For information on 911 calls, a malpractice suit, a sexual abuse case, and a lot of ferment on employee rights, see:
Problems at Planned Parenthood – Colorado.
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