Denver Mayor Mike Johnston stood on the steps of the City and County Building Thursday and signed Executive Order 152. It directs Denver police to physically detain ICE agents who use excessive force. The Department of Homeland Security called it “legally illiterate.” Federal law may prove them right — about the order being illegal, not the mayor’s intent.
The order bans ICE from city-owned property without a judicial warrant, requires body camera documentation of federal immigration operations, and mandates Denver officers intervene when federal agents use force that could cause death or serious injury. Johnston framed it as protection, not provocation. “No ICE officer gets to stand in our way of saving someone’s life,” he said.
Federal law doesn’t see it that way. Title 18 U.S.C. § 372 — conspiracy to prevent federal officers from performing their duties — doesn’t require a completed act. It requires documented intent and an overt step toward obstruction. Johnston provided both in writing and held a press conference to announce them. The moment a Denver officer detains an ICE agent under that order, the conspiracy is complete and the mayor is its author.
Johnston’s own police chief acknowledged the exposure. Denver Police Chief Ron Thomas confirmed the law permits his officers to arrest an ICE agent, while stressing that de-escalation remains the primary concern. An officer who follows the order and the mayor who issued it face simultaneous federal liability. “Following orders” has not been a valid criminal defense in U.S. courts since United States v. Calley in 1973.
DHS cited Article I, Article II, and the Supremacy Clause in rejecting the order’s legal premise — the constitutional provisions establishing federal law as supreme over local ordinance. Johnston’s city attorney countered that setting legal boundaries is “responsible governance.” Federal prosecutors would decide which argument holds.
Johnston didn’t act alone. He coordinated the order with other mayors, including Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, who faced similar federal pressure after two protesters were fatally shot by ICE agents in January. One city’s defiance is a local dispute. A coordinated multi-city policy of detaining federal agents is a pattern — and patterns change prosecutorial calculus.
The statute exists. The authority to act exists. What has stopped federal prosecution of elected officials — across administrations — is political calculation, not legal ambiguity. Executive Order 152 didn’t change that calculation. It just made Johnston’s position in it a matter of public record.
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