This first weekend of summer not only brings record high temperatures to most of the country, including here in Colorado, but the political and social pressures are also reaching a boiling point. As Axios Denver reporter Alayna Alvarez shares at the table this week: “It will be really hard to watch if things keep escalating on both sides as they are right now.” Thankfully, Alayna and the rest of the Insiders are coolheaded thinkers who bring some needed context to all that Colorado is juggling.

Increased Deportation Efforts & Targeting of Democratic Cities: Following last weekend’s nationwide protests, the Trump Administration put the pressure on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to triple the number of deportations from 1,000 a day to 3,000 daily.

• Adam Burg, Senior Policy Advisor at Foster Graham Milstein & Calisher law firm: “Now you have farmers, cattle ranchers, hotel owners and restaurant owners have serious workforce concerns because ICE is showing up on their job sites, arresting people broadly without checking criminal record. We’re going to have a workforce shortage in these essential service areas because of the confusing directives and this Wild West approach to how we’re going about addressing immigration in this country.”
• Alayna Alvarez, Axios Reporter: “We’ve reached a moment where even Republicans and Trump loyalists, including Congressman Gabe Evans, who represents ranchers and farmers in Colorado’s 8th District are saying ‘maybe we’ve gone too far.’ Evans, talked to my colleague and said that the Trump administration should not be focusing on immigrants who have not committed crimes.”

Local Law Enforcement & ICE Confrontations: The Insiders also discuss how local law enforcement is entangled in some of the ICE confrontations. Most notable in the news this week was the detainment of 19-year-old Caroline Dias Goncalves who was driving to Denver after finishing her year in college in Utah. She was pulled over by a Mesa County Sheriff’s Deputy near Fruita and given a warning during the traffic stop. The Department admits that deputy alerted ICE to the teenager and her car and Goncalves was stopped shortly thereafter and detained.

• Patty Calhoun, Westword Editor: “He’s been suspended. But there are more instances all over the state, all over the country. Jefferson County is already protesting that ICE is lying about someone who was released from Jeffco jail and ICE didn’t pick them up, and they’re saying ‘we weren’t warned,’ while they were.”
• Eric Sondermann, Colorado Politics columnist: “We need to recognize that is a function of a system that went wildly out of control in the previous administration. And the voters of this country finally rebelled and said, ‘we’ve had enough.’ If this is what ‘enough’ looks like, I find that very troubling.”

Colorado’s Economic Uncertainty & Fiscal Challenge: State economists estimate a 50/50 chance Colorado will dip into a recession. Even without a recession, the legislature is projected to face a $700 million shortfall next year. Some estimates say that figure could rise to $1 billion.

• Adam Burg: Healthcare spending in Colorado surpassed education spending for the first time last session, and a lack of federal dollars to subsidize these costs could add “another billion dollars to the state budget.”
• Alayna Alvarez: “Colorado’s current unemployment rate is 4.8% which is higher than the 4.2% national average, marking the first time in 25 years it has exceeded the national rate for an extended period.” Alayna mentions the layoffs, hiring freeze and furloughs in the works for Denver employees and that Boulder has also instituted a hiring freeze for the remainder of 2025.
• Eric Sondermann: “Governor Polis has basically had the good fortune to preside over boom times. Those times seem to be changing. Whether it is Michael Bennet or Phil Weiser or ‘Person X’ to be the next Governor of Colorado, they’re going to preside and lead in a very different environment and we need to hear from them during this campaign.”

Public Official Safety and Transparency Dilemma: Last week’s shootings and killings of Minnesota state lawmakers and their spouses have renewed a debate about protecting public officials while maintaining government transparency. Axios Denver was first to report that in the wake of the shootings, Colorado’s Secretary of State temporarily removed the campaign finance database due to concerns from public officials over their addresses and donor information being so accessible.

• Alayna Alvarez: “In many other states, there are laws where you can only access that information through a public records request. Colorado, being the transparent state, doesn’t have that kind of law in place.” Alayna adds that State Senate President James Coleman spoke to Axios Denver and said in this upcoming session, lawmakers are going to seriously be looking at changing that law to shield some of this.
• Patty Calhoun: “You should be able to see your public officials in action at their place of work. The home issue is tricky. We saw Supreme Court justices in Colorado threatened. We saw people who filed lawsuits to keep Trump off the Colorado ballot getting threatened and actually having some protection at their homes.”
• Adam Burg: “I’m worried that the increasing threats may push people away from running for office, who may be really good, competent leaders because they don’t want to put themselves, literally and sadly, in the firing line.”

Possible Federal Public Land Sales Controversy: A provision within the federal budget bill proposes the sale of 14 million acres of federal public land in Colorado: 8.3 million acres of BLM land & 16 million acres of Forest Service land. The panel all worries that once the public lands are sold, they are gone. As Alayna Alvarez says: “there are no do-overs.”

• Adam Burg: “There’s a provision stuck in this bill that these lands can only be used for housing or related infrastructure. That’s only for ten years. There’s a stop on that… at which point then, they would be much more flexible for other use.”
• Patty Calhoun: “In the version that went to the House, there was a proposal for public lands in the West to be sold. It did not include Colorado… that had to get pulled before it passed the House. But now, Colorado has been added back into the bill before the Senate. Even MAGA supporters do not approve of this. People in the West want to keep the lands public.”
• The Colorado lands in question include:
• 2,067 climbing sites
• 25,428 miles of trails
• 328 river miles
• Adam Burg: “Vail and Copper Mountain are among the resorts on National Forest land. Also potentially included in this bill: areas near Grand Junction, Big Thompson Canyon, Hartman Rocks in Gunnison and Animas City Mountain in Durango.”
• Eric Sondermann: “When we’re starting to attack or jeopardize the beauty of this state and the beauty of this country. There are so many red flags being raised around this issue. There was a recent report from Headwaters Economics that found that less than 2% of public lands in the West, near towns with increased housing demand, are even suitable for housing.”

So that’s a lot to think about, right… well here’s something happy to end on! I’m so thrilled for our regular Insider, Ean Thomas Tafoya who got married on this Friday, June 20th. And, here’s a shout out to my in-laws as well who celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary on the 19th. As always, the good and in those cases the very good always win over the challenges!