Gov. Jared Polis has moved to drop his nine-month effort to comply with a federal immigration subpoena, arguing that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials apparently no longer need the employment records the governor had sought to turn over.

Attorneys representing Polis informed a Denver judge Friday that the governor wanted a ruling that would indefinitely block him from ordering the release of the information, which ICE had initially requested roughly a year ago.

If granted, the permanent injunction would end a lawsuit by a now-former state employee, who sued Polis last year to block compliance with the subpoena. The suit has successfully — but temporarily — prevented the release of the records, which cover employment details for the sponsors of unaccompanied immigrant children who lack proper legal status.

In Friday’s filing, which The Denver Post is first to report, Polis’ attorneys noted that ICE officials had not tried to intervene in Moss’ lawsuit and hadn’t taken any other action to try to enforce the subpoena. Between that inaction and the “passage of time” since the subpoena was served last April, Polis’ team argued, ICE either didn’t need the information or its production was no longer urgent.

“We are asking the court to end this matter so we can move on,” Polis spokesman Eric Maruyama said in a statement Wednesday. “The state will continue to follow the law and work with federal law enforcement in accordance with state and federal law to investigate and tackle crime. While we believe responding to the subpoena was allowed in this instance, given the timeline and lack of additional information from the federal agency, it is time to move forward.”

Scott Moss, who worked for the state Department of Labor and Employment until last summer and sued in June to block compliance with the subpoena, has yet to agree to Polis’ offer. Though they had discussed settlement options in recent months, Moss’ attorneys told Polis’ legal team that they didn’t have sufficient time to consider the request before it was presented to the court.

Laura Wolf, Moss’ attorney, said in a statement Wednesday that the legal team was “in the midst of responding substantively to the motion itself.” The state employees union, Colorado WINS, and the nonprofit law firm Towards Justice had also joined the suit to contest Polis’ attempted cooperation with ICE.

“We are glad that, after nearly ten months of litigation, Governor Polis has finally conceded that there is no basis to respond to ICE’s immigration enforcement subpoena,” Wolf wrote. “We are also pleased to learn that CDLE no longer responds to administrative subpoenas without a court order.”

As the case has played out, the state labor department — or CDLE — shifted its policy to effectively block the same sort of subpoena that Polis has defended for months.

During a January legislative hearing, agency officials told lawmakers that they hadn’t received any ICE subpoenas since the summer, and they said they’d adopted a new policy that directed staff to reject subpoenas unless the requests were signed by a judge.