As protests against federal immigration crackdowns spread across the country this week, local residents were participating in a community discussion in Aspen on Tuesday about how to support immigrant communities. Protesters in Glenwood Springs on Wednesday also spoke out against an increase in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrests.
Dozens of residents attended Tuesday night’s event, which was hosted by the volunteer-led advocacy group Mountain Action Indivisible at the home of Aspen resident, attorney and former chair of the Pitkin County Democrats, Blanca Uzeta O'Leary.
Pitkin County Sheriff Michael Buglione spoke at the event, telling attendees that his office has not been made aware of any ICE enforcement in the county so far this year. However, several local attorneys and advocacy groups, including Latino-led nonprofit Voces Unidas, confirmed last month that they’ve received a recent uptick in community reports of federal immigration-related arrests in the Roaring Fork and Colorado River valleys.
If ICE requests assistance from the Pitkin County Sheriff in an arrest, Buglione said they will only help if the agency has a judicial warrant issued in a federal court, which is different from an administrative warrant issued on the basis of an individual’s immigration status by the Department of Homeland Security.
Under Colorado law, state and local law enforcement are prohibited from arresting or detaining an individual based solely on a civil immigration detainer.
“The mere fact of someone entering and being in our country undocumented is not a crime, it's a civil issue, and we can't arrest someone for not having papers,” Buglione said. “My deputies do not question people where they're from, why they're here, or anything like that.”
He continued, “The sheriff's office will not stop, question, interrogate, investigate or arrest an individual based solely on actual or suspected immigration or citizenship status, or a civil immigration warrant.”
In 2017, Pitkin County passed a resolution affirming itself as a “welcoming community for immigrants” and prohibiting county employees and the sheriff’s office from providing non-public information about an individual to federal immigration officials unless the request is accompanied by a judicial warrant.
“If ICE comes to a county office for some reason, Pitkin County employees are not qualified to determine if it’s a detainer or warrant,” Buglione said. “So they are told to call the county attorney or the county manager, and they’re not going to let any information go on any employee in Pitkin County, including in our jail.”
Alan Muñoz Valenciano works for Voces Unidas and also spoke at Tuesday’s event.
He said school districts in the Roaring Fork and Colorado River valleys have also implemented some protocols for how to handle encounters with federal immigration agents, including the Roaring Fork School District’s recently passed Safe Haven Policy.
“It used to be the ‘Safe Haven Resolution,’ but last year, working with the superintendent, the school district and local law enforcement agencies, we were able to come up with a Safe Haven Policy and protocols so that immigrant students and immigrant families will be protected and feel safe going to school,” Valenciano said.
The Aspen School District also has similar protocols in place to stop federal immigration agents from entering school buildings without a judicial warrant.
“So if ICE does come to Aspen High School or any school in Pitkin County, they wouldn't be allowed beyond the front desk, and we would be notified, because the schools are in my jurisdiction,” Buglione said.
Colorado also passed a law last month, which goes into effect in August, and includes limiting ICE officers from being able to access sensitive areas such as schools, hospitals and child care centers without a warrant.
Protecting employees
Several attendees at Tuesday’s event in Aspen called on local businesses that hire people without secure immigration status to do more to advocate for their employees.
“I look around, and I see a huge amount of power,” said attendee Cynthia Jacobson. “When I think about what we can actually do in this moment, we are consumers of everything from lumber, construction, government services, and hospitality. I am very aware that there are businesses that are hiring on a ‘Don't ask, don't tell’ basis, but yet they are unwilling to be advocates for their employees, and that's very sad to me. So what we can do is make sure that it's known that we care about these people in our community that are working here.”
During the community discussion, Mary — a general manager of a condominium and hotel complex in Snowmass Village — shared that her hospitality management team has shared “Know Your Rights” cards with their employees and has a plan in place if ICE shows up, which includes contacting a lawyer.
Aspen Public Radio is not using Mary’s full name because she is worried ICE could target her business’ employees.
“Should [ICE] come up, every employee knows there are only three people on my staff that they're allowed to talk to, and the first thing we're going to do is to call that immigration attorney to talk to them,” Mary said. “So we're trying to be as proactive as possible.”
Alan Muñoz Valenciano works for Latino-advocacy nonprofit Voces Unidas and also spoke at Tuesday’s event.
“As someone who has real life experience as an immigrant, coming from a family of immigrants, we always want to be proactive instead of reactive,” Valenciano said. “And that ties into a lot of the work that Mountain Action Indivisible is doing, that Voces Unidas is doing, that we all should be trying to do together to come up with ways to prevent things from happening in our community that will cause damage, put people in fear, and hinder the progress that we've come so far to make.”
Voces Unidas offers “Know Your Rights” training for local businesses and organizations as well as family-preparedness resources and a local hotline where people can report ICE activity.
Although Valenciano acknowledged that immigrants make up a large part of the workforce in communities like Aspen and Snowmass Village, he also cautioned against fixating on that.
“We cannot tie immigrants, tie the value of immigrants, to their utility to us,” Valenciano said. “Immigrants are not just your construction workers. They're not just your housekeepers. They're not just your cooks. Immigrants, first and foremost, are people, and the fact that there are people is enough to advocate for them.”
Protest against ICE
Tuesday’s meeting in Aspen was one of several events organized this week in response to recent federal immigration enforcement.
On Wednesday morning, residents gathered in Glenwood Springs to protest increased ICE presence in the Roaring Fork and Colorado River valleys.
Around 30 protestors marched along a bike path from the West Glenwood Park and Ride to a building listed on ICE’s website as a local “field office.”
As cars drove by, some honking in support, a Glenwood Springs student carried a sign that read, “I like my horchata without ICE.” Aspen Public Radio is not using the student’s full name because she’s concerned about her family’s safety.
Several members of her extended-family have been detained by ICE in the past, and increased federal immigration enforcement under the Trump administration has resurfaced fears about being separated from her father, who she said has been trying to get his citizenship for about 20 years.
“I just have that worry that one day I get back home, and I don't see my dad,” she said. “That's the fear I've always had: I don't see my parents when I get back home, and it hurts a lot.”
She wishes there were more accessible pathways to citizenship or residency for people like her father who have lived and worked in the U.S. for decades.
“Everyone’s human and everyone worked to get to the point where they're at,” she said. “And if they get taken away, where does all that hard work go into?”
Although she is not personally afraid to go to school, she said some of her classmates are, even with protocols in place at the Roaring Fork School District to protect students from ICE enforcement on campus.
Despite a recent judicial order prohibiting ICE from conducting civil arrests in or around courthouses in Garfield, Pitkin and Rio Blanco counties, instances of ICE arrests at courthouses earlier this year in western Colorado also concern the Glenwood Springs student.
“People are afraid that any immigrant that gets in trouble by the law, even if it's just a parking ticket, could be detained by ICE at the courthouse,” she said. “So they're at risk just for showing up at court, which they're doing correctly, but now they're scared to even show up.”
In response to Wednesday’s protest in Glenwood Springs and general concerns shared by some attendees, an ICE spokesperson provided Aspen Public Radio and Aspen Journalism with the following written statement:
“As part of its routine operations, ICE arrests aliens who commit crimes and other individuals who have violated our nation’s immigration laws. All aliens in violation of U.S. immigration law may be subject to arrest, detention and, if found removable by final order, removal from the United States, regardless of nationality,” the ICE spokesperson said.
The statement continued, “U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement may encounter U.S. citizens while conducting field work and may request identification to establish an individual’s identity. Any U.S. immigration officer has authority to question, without warrant, any alien or person believed to be an alien concerning his or her right to be, or to remain, in the United States.”
Another protest against immigration enforcement and other Trump administration actions and policies will take place at Sayre Park in Glenwood Springs on Saturday from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
The “No Kings People’s March” is part of a national day of protest with the local event organized by Mountain Action Indivisible.
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story included the Glenwood Springs student’s first name. It has been removed out of safety concerns for her family.
