White House, using AI, mistakenly lists Custer County as a “Sanctuary” community for immigrants; a mistake that could devastate local government funding
This use of AI landed Custer County in the hot seat on Friday when it showed up on a list published by the Department of Homeland Security as a sanctuary jurisdiction “deliberately and shamefully obstructing the enforcement of federal immigration laws endangering American communities. Sanctuary cities protect dangerous criminal aliens from facing consequences and put law enforcement in peril.” This requirement to list Sanctuary communities was part of Executive Order 14287: Protecting American Communities from Criminal Aliens which was signed on April 28.
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Custer County was hardly alone in making the list as a rural community that has never passed laws to obstruct immigration law. Rural and conservative strongholds from El Paso to Kit Carson Counties all made the list as communities that were obstructing immigration efforts.
As a journalist working in rural Colorado for the past decade, the source of the mistake was immediately apparent. In 2019, most rural Colorado counties passed resolutions (statements that have no legal authority) to claim that their communities were “Second Amendment Sanctuary Counties” in protest against the Colorado Red Flag law that allowed law enforcement or families to petition a judge to temporarily remove firearms from people who were at risk of committing violence against others.
At the time this use of the word “Sanctuary” was being used as a political tool to criticize communities that were calling themselves “Sanctuary” places where immigrants were safe from deportation.
Custer County passed “A Resolution of the Board of County Commissioners for Custer County Declaring said County to be Second Amendment Sanctuary County” on February 28, 2019. The town of Silver Cliff passed the same resolution a month later.
https://wetmountaintribune.com/2025/05/30/white-house-using-ai-mistakenly-lists-custer-county-as-a-sanctuary-community-for-immigrants-a-mistake-that-could-devastate-local-government-funding/
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