Federal agents went door-to-door at a Denver apartment complex before dawn Wednesday, banging on doors and demanding residents show identification.
Residents of the Cedar Run Apartments at 888 S. Onieda St. — just one of the locations targeted by Wednesday’s large-scale federal immigration enforcement operation — texted warnings to each other as masked officers flooded the area around 6 a.m., later loading zip-tied detainees onto a large bus outside the complex.
Hannah Strickline answered her door at Cedar Run to find “six heavily-armed officers demanding ID,” she said. After she provided her identification, she told The Denver Post, they asked which of her neighbors might be undocumented.
“It’s insulting and infuriating because I would never snitch on my neighbors,” she said. “They have every right to be here. And I would never want to put anyone through that sort of stress.”
Crystal Villa, another Cedar Run resident, said federal agents woke her up around 6 a.m. She showed a reporter Ring doorbell footage in which a man wearing a Homeland Security Investigations vest asked if she had drugs, if she was with anyone, if the agent could come into her apartment and if she spoke English.
She was born and raised in Colorado, Villa said.
“I was shocked,” she said.
Strickline said the apartment complex is about 70% Spanish-speaking residents, mostly families with young kids. A playground behind the building was empty Wednesday as officers worked.
“People are scared,” Strickline said. “And people who aren’t even undocumented are scared. We have dozens of armed officers banging on all doors, like we are all criminals. And no one wants that in their homes.”
Robert Iron Shield, a Native American from the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, also awoke around 6 a.m. to loud banging on his door from federal agents. He presented his ID, passport and tribal documents and began live-streaming.
“We’re falling to the way of Nazi Germany,” he said of the raids.
Conditions at the sprawling apartment complex have deteriorated in recent years since new ownership took over in 2019, Strickline said. She’s lived in the building for 14 years. Now, conditions are practically unlivable, she said, with mold, pest infestations, lack of hot water and lack of heat. The area sometimes gets rowdy and loud, she said.
Ali Shihab, who owns a business that abuts Cedar Run, said the complex has recently become dangerous. Residents in the apartments would work in the street repairing cars, he said, taking apart engines and remaking them.
“It got out of control in this area, to be honest,” he said. “Shootings, prostitution.”
Shihab immigrated legally to the U.S. from Iraq more than a decade ago.
“I hate seeing this,” he said, standing across the street and watching the raid. “But it was chaos.”
Shihab said his business’ surveillance video showed federal officers at the apartment complex as early as midnight.
The raid, which involved agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the FBI and Homeland Security Investigations, was still going mid-morning Wednesday. Activists with bullhorns shouted out information about people’s rights in multiple languages as federal officers detained people.
A small crowd had gathered at the entrance of the apartment complex by about 9 a.m. As federal officers worked across the street, some in the crowd chanted in protest. A handful of residents stood on their balconies, cell phones in hand, watching as the officers worked. Others stood on the sidewalk, unable to get back into their units. One man complained about just finishing a 12-hour shift at work and being unable to get home.
Eida Altman, who has been organizing tenants at Cedar Run with the Denver Metro Tenants Union, said her group quickly set about calling tenants there to advise them of their rights when they learned of the raid early Wednesday.
She said two people had been picked up by ICE outside of the property, and at least five people were detained from Cedar Run. She said FBI agents were also “going through” cars on the property.
“It’s disorienting,” she said. “We’re trying to figure it out.”
She noted that the properties raided by federal authorities on Wednesday are known as apartments with poor living conditions.
Altman said her group had been preparing Cedar Run tenants about their rights in anticipation of such an immigration raid.
But, she said, “There’s only so much you can do.”
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