Attorney General Phil Weiser urges federal court to protect Job Corps, including Mesa County center
June 13, 2025 (DENVER) – Attorney General Phil Weiser today in a brief filed with 17 other attorneys general told a federal court to protect Job Corps, a national program that for more than 60 years has offered career training and housing to young Americans from low-income backgrounds.
The Trump administration recently announced it will pause operations at Job Corps, which operates nearly 100 residential campuses across the country including a center in eastern Mesa County run by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Though operations at the center located in the town of Collbran continue for now, its future and those of the nearly 100 students it houses remain in doubt.
“Despite facing financial hardship and other adversity in their lives, the students who enroll in Job Corps and live at centers like the one in Mesa County are working to improve their lives by learning important skills like carpentry, masonry, or even wildland firefighting,” said Attorney General Weiser “This reckless decision will rob hardworking young people of a chance to better themselves and their communities, and risks leaving thousands of vulnerable young people homeless. I am urging the court not to allow the Trump administration to continue with this cruel and illegal plan.”
Recently, a bipartisan group of Colorado’s Congressional delegation called for the administration to keep Job Corps running (opens in new window) and a Republican state lawmaker who represents the area voiced his concerns (opens new window) for the uncertain future of the Collbran Job Corps center. Many Job Corps students were homeless or living in foster care and have nowhere else to go if the centers are closed.
In the brief filed today, the coalition of attorneys general explain that “in the sixty years since Congress created Job Corps, millions of young Americans from low-income backgrounds have been served by the program’s unique combination of education, training, housing, healthcare and community.”
The coalition says a court order is necessary to protect vulnerable state residents and promote state goals in education and workforce development. The brief also reinforces the point that the Trump administration cannot violate federal law and the Constitution by terminating congressionally mandated programs it opposes.
Attorney General Weiser joined Washington Attorney General Nick Brown and Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford, along with leaders from Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Vermont.
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