An unidentified federal employee said a lot of the right things outside of apartments in east Denver Wednesday morning – they were looking for criminals and didn’t want to go door to door harassing residents but were left no choice by jail officials who refused to release criminals to their custody.
But a video and reports from inside the apartments, and another complex in west Aurora, tell a different story.
Rather than showing residents lawful warrants to search for known criminals, reports from residents were that officials were knocking randomly on doors and asking if anyone knew anyone undocumented. Officials may have had arrest warrants for specific people or search warrants for certain apartments — they said they did — but their actions went far beyond that scope.
That is not normal behavior for officials who are carrying out the long-stated purpose of Immigration and Customs Enforcement – “protect the homeland by enforcing immigration law against those who present a danger to our national security or are a threat to public safety.”
Colorado’s Enforcement and Removal Operations have long made it clear – as currently stated on their website – that they are working to remove those “who undermine the safety of our nation’s communities and the integrity of the U.S. immigration laws.”
The family who shared a FaceTime video with Denver7 of an official with a covered face standing at their door met neither of those standards. And yet they were targeted by ICE for questioning — in their own home at the Edge of Lowry.
The unnamed official in the video outside what looked like the Cedar Run apartment complex near George Washington High School in Denver explained why such activities were occurring: “Unfortunately we have to come to the communities because we don’t get the cooperation we need from the jails. It would be so much easier and so much safer for our officers and agents if we could take these people into custody from a safe environment, but if we have to come out in the community to do this, that’s what we’re going to do.”
There is some truth to that.
Colorado’s law enforcement officials do not send ICE a list of people in their custody, although if ICE has a valid deportation order or a detainer for an individual in custody, local officials will share details about when that person is going to be released. Miscommunication and mistiming – sometimes with tragic results – have been documented. A Colorado law in 2019 makes it even harder for local officials to cooperate with immigration officials.
We’ve long called for better communication and collaboration between local officials and ICE about dangerous individuals who are eligible for deportation.
The pendulum has swung too far, however.
President Donald Trump’s pledge to deport millions of people who are living and working in the United States without legal status will tear apart hard-working families. Now is not the time for Colorado to lessen its support for immigrants without legal status who have proven themselves to be good members of the community even though their arrival was unlawful.
Yes, deport dangerous criminals who are selling drugs and terrorizing Coloradans with gun violence and assault.
But don’t go door to door randomly asking people for their papers to prove they are in this country legally. We fully support federal operations to crack down on gun violence in our communities, whether the perpetrators have legal U.S. status or not.
We do not support harassing families, including recent asylum seekers, who are just trying to live their lives and stay out of trouble.
ICE said it was searching for more than 100 known members of Tren de Aragua in Aurora. The operation was in conjunction with the FBI, DEA, Customs and Border Protection, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the U.S. Marshals Service.
We wish officials luck in apprehending and charging those 100 individuals with crimes and then getting lawful deportation orders. We hope they remain safe in their pursuit of these criminals.
However, they can do that without striking fear into the hearts of Colorado’s immigrant community, who are now wondering if they need to carry their visas, parole documents, asylum papers or other paperwork with them everywhere they go.
Sign up for Sound Off to get a weekly roundup of our columns, editorials and more.
To send a letter to the editor about this article, submit online or check out our guidelines for how to submit by email or mail.