The U.S. Small Business Administration announced Thursday it will move its regional office out of Denver.
Under new leadership, the agency said it would relocate six regional offices “out of sanctuary cities,” to “less costly, more accessible locations that better serve the small business community and comply with federal immigration law.”
Denver is considered a so-called sanctuary city because it does not ask about people’s immigration status when providing services, though city officials do not use the term “sanctuary city.” In Colorado, local law enforcement can notify U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement when they are releasing a person in custody who has an ICE detainer, but they are prohibited from detaining people beyond their release date in order to wait for immigration officials.
Besides Denver, the other cities are Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, New York City and Seattle. The announcement came a day after the mayors of Denver, Chicago, New York City and Boston testified before a congressional committee investigating sanctuary city policies.
An agency spokesperson declined to say if an office will remain in Colorado or how many employees it has in Denver.
Last week, Republican U.S. Rep. Jeff Crank said he would welcome the agency in Colorado Springs, which is in his district.
“The short move to Colorado Springs would allow the SBA to comply with President Trump’s executive orders and (SBA’s new administrator Kelly Loeffler’s) while minimizing reduction in services or loss of personnel,” Crank said to Loeffler.
According to its 2024 , the SBA had 1,770 full-time employees nationwide in fiscal year 2024, plus about 4,000 disaster-funded workers.
SBA has provided loans to thousands of small businesses nationwide, including nearly $15.1 billion for 200,000 loans to Colorado companies as part of the Paycheck Protection Program during the pandemic. About were made to businesses in Denver.