By: Dawn Lurie, John Mazzeo, and Alexander Madrak
Colorado has enacted HB26-1283, a new law restricting how employers handle government-issued identification documents. Although the statute is primarily aimed at preventing employers and other labor market actors from exploiting workers, particularly vulnerable populations such as migrant and seasonal workers, the practical compliance challenge for many employers will be far more administrative: a new written notice and acknowledgment requirement that may be triggered when employers review identity and work authorization documents during the Form I-9 process.
For employers with Colorado workers, especially national employers the law adds a state-specific step to a process that has long been treated as largely uniform nationwide.
What Does the Law Require?
Subject to limited exceptions, the law prohibits employers and their agents from demanding, confiscating, retaining, or otherwise requiring workers or applicants to surrender government-issued identification documents. Employers may still review documents for Form I-9 purposes and make copies where permitted but must cannot hold the documents for more than ten hours.
The more notable, and burdensome, requirement is procedural. During the Form I-9 process, employers must provide a written notice explaining the law’s protections and obtain an acknowledgment from the individual. That acknowledgment must be retained in the employee’s records.
Why This Matters
This is not just a poster update or handbook revision. Colorado has inserted a new state-specific notice step into the onboarding and Form I-9 workflow. Employers now need a way to identify covered workers, deliver the notice at the right point in the process, collect the acknowledgment, and store it so it can be retrieved later.
That may be a heavier lift than it sounds. Many employers rely on electronic Form I-9 vendors, HRIS platforms, applicant tracking systems, or standardized onboarding workflows that were not built around state-by-state Form I-9 add-ons. If those systems cannot support the new requirement, employers may need a manual workaround or a separate recordkeeping process.
What Should Employers Do Now?
Employers with Colorado operations should start by mapping where the notice and acknowledgment will fit into their onboarding process. Key questions include who will receive the notice, when it will be delivered, how the acknowledgment will be captured, and where the record will be maintained.
Employers using electronic I-9 vendors should ask whether system updates are planned, but they should not assume the I-9 platform will be the only or best solution. Existing HRIS, onboarding, applicant tracking, or document management systems may offer a more practical path to compliance.
Employers also should train HR and onboarding teams on the distinction between reviewing documents for Form I-9 purposes and retaining original identification documents. As a best practice, employers should collect, review, copy if appropriate, and return documents promptly rather than holding originals longer than necessary.
What Are the Penalties?
The law carries criminal exposure for knowing violations of the ID-confiscation prohibition, including Class 2 misdemeanor treatment and enhanced penalties for certain bias-motivated conduct. The statute is less clear regarding the consequences for failing to provide the required notice or obtain the employee acknowledgment. While the law does not appear to establish a specific criminal penalty for those requirements, employers should nonetheless treat them as mandatory compliance obligations and maintain documentation demonstrating compliance until additional guidance becomes available. Failure to do so could create enforcement or litigation risks, particularly if questions later arise regarding an employer’s document review practices.
The Bottom Line
Colorado’s new law may be framed as an ID-confiscation measure, but for most employers the action item is operational: build a notice-and-acknowledgment step into the employment eligibility verification process before the law takes effect. The sooner employers test how that step will work in their systems, the less disruptive the new requirement is likely to be.
Employers should also work with immigration compliance counsel, HR, and their electronic I-9 vendors (if applicable) or other system providers to develop a practical, defensible process for creating, collecting, retaining, and tracking acknowledgments in a manner that aligns with existing onboarding and employment verification workflows.