(TELLER COUNTY, Colo.) — On Thursday, July 18 the Teller County Sheriff’s Office (TCSO) will hold a press conference at 11 a.m. about the recent Colorado appeals court ruling on its agreement with the federal government’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to detain suspected illegal immigrants.

According to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), under the “287(g) agreement,” TCSO could hold a person suspected of civil immigration violation in jail past their release date and turn them over to ICE. The ACLU argued that this was against the Colorado Constitution and the law.

In 2019 the sheriff of TCSO, Jason Mikesell, defended the agreement saying the program is not about immigrants but about lawbreakers, and cited an incident where an undocumented man was released from the Teller County Jail and was later involved in a hit-and-run crash.

The ACLU, representing five Teller County taxpayers, filed the lawsuit in 2019, shortly after Colorado enacted a law that forbids state and local law enforcement officers from arresting and detaining persons based on ICE documents that are not signed by a judge. On July 3, 2024, the Colorado Court of Appeals said that Sheriff Mikesell cannot hold immigrants in jail based on requests from ICE.

FOX21 will be at the press conference and will have it live in the video player above.