AG Weiser files lawsuit to hold Mesa sheriff’s deputy liable after state investigation revealed illegal coordination with federal immigration officials

July 22, 2025 (DENVER) – Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser today filed a lawsuit against a Mesa County sheriff’s deputy to require him to follow state laws that bar state agency and local government employees from cooperating with federal officials on immigration civil enforcement actions.

Deputy Alexander Zwinck violated Colorado law by working with federal immigration officials to detain a 19-year-old Utah woman after a routine traffic stop last month, according to the lawsuit filed today in Mesa County District Court. The lawsuit asserts that Deputy Zwinck had no right to share, or inquire into, the driver’s personal identifying information for the purpose of assisting with federal civil immigration enforcement and asks the court for an order enjoining the deputy from engaging in similar unlawful conduct in the future.

“State law specifies that Colorado law enforcement officers are dedicated to enforcing Colorado law and do not do the work of the federal government to enforce immigration law,” said Attorney General Weiser. “In this case, the driver was detained by immigration authorities because of actions by Colorado law enforcement despite the absence of any criminal activity on her part. Her detention for over two weeks is directly due to this violation of Colorado’s laws. Because of this action, we are making clear that Colorado law enforcement’s role is to advance public safety, not take on the responsibility of doing the work of federal immigration enforcement.”

On June 5, Deputy Zwinck stopped the nursing student for following too close to a semitruck on I-70. The driver cooperated with Deputy Zwinck and provided her driver’s license, vehicle registration, and insurance information upon request. Deputy Zwinck immediately uploaded the driver’s personal identifying information to a Signal group chat which Deputy Zwinck knew included federal immigration officers and was told that the driver had no criminal history but was a Brazilian national on an expired visa.

Instead of ending communications with officials on the group chat since there were no criminal matters to follow up on, Deputy Zwinck proceeded to assist the federal immigration officers in detaining the driver. According to the state investigation, Deputy Zwinck provided his location to the federal immigration officers on the chat who indicated that they were on the way. The deputy stalled the driver in his patrol car for at least five minutes and questioned her about her national origin, commented on her accent, and asked where she was from. Deputy Zwinck did not issue a traffic violation citation to the driver and gave her a warning before allowing her to return to her vehicle.

Deputy Zwinck then messaged on the chat that she had left, providing federal immigration officers with a description of her car, her vehicle’s license plate number, and the direction she was traveling. The immigration officers who were on the chat later pulled over the driver and took her into custody. Upon reading that the immigration officers had detained her, Deputy Zwinck commented on the chat, “nice work.”

According to the Signal chat communications, Deputy Zwinck also assisted federal immigration officers in violation of Colorado law on other occasions. In a message sent on June 6—one day after the driver was detained—another officer commented that “[Deputy] Zwinck is gonna get ERO interdictor of the year.” ERO stands for Enforcement and Removal Operations, a section of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Deputy Zwinck engaged in this conduct despite receiving a January 2025 email from the Mesa County Sheriff’s Office operations division chief to all patrol units about providing information to ICE and advising that Colorado law narrowly restricts the office’s ability to enforce immigration issues and cooperate with ICE.

Colorado law expressly prohibits state agency and political subdivision employees— including counties, municipalities, and their government agencies such as city police departments and sheriff offices—from disclosing personal identifying information for the purpose of “investigating for, participating in, cooperating with, or assisting federal immigration enforcement.” State law also prohibits the same employees from inquiring into a person’s immigration status for federal immigration enforcement purposes. C.R.S. §§ 24-74-103(1), 24-74-104(1).

The Attorney General’s Office has an ongoing investigation into law enforcement involved in the Signal group chat to determine if they engaged in a pattern or practice of conduct that violates the state constitution or laws.

Read a copy of the complaint (PDF).

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Media Contact:
Lawrence Pacheco
Chief Communications Officer
(720) 508-6553 office
lawrence.pacheco@coag.gov