The Colorado Rapid Response Network, which runs a hotline for reporting Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity, posted a video last week to Facebook showing two black cars reversing out of the Montezuma County Sheriff’s Office parking lot as a videographer gave them the middle finger.
The post read, “3 p.m. Cortez, CO – CONFIRMED, ICE.”
Mancos residents were quick to respond as the local advocacy organization The Cookout reposted the video and urged residents to “pack the house” at the evening’s Board of Trustees meeting. On the agenda was a vote on whether to send a letter of support for Sen. Michael Bennet’s proposed immigration enforcement reforms.
“Vulnerable members of our community, people of color here in Mancos are scared because of what is actually happening,” said one community member in his plea to the board during public comment.
The board voted 4-1 in favor of distributing a letter to Colorado’s congressional delegation expressing support for Bennet’s three new bills. The proposals could establish new protections for immigrants sought out by ICE and promote transparency between the agency and the public.
“This aligns a lot with what people were packing the house for months asking for,” Trustee Max Loving said. “This is very much in our wheelhouse and would show those community members that we did hear them and we do care.”
Bennet’s Keeping Immigrants and Destinations Safe – or KIDS – Act would bar the Department of Homeland Security from detaining minors, people with cognitive disabilities and their primary caregivers as well as prohibit immigration arrests near and in sensitive places like churches and schools.
His Training, Responsibility, Uniforms and Standards for Transparency – or TRUST – Act would enforce identification, require body cameras and ban masking among immigration enforcement officers as well as implement mandatory trainings on topics like civil rights, disability identification and language access.
Bennet’s final bill in the series, the Oversight, Protection and Enforcement Notification – or OPEN – Act would permit Congress members unrestricted access to immigration detention facilities, require public reporting of alleged misconduct from DHS and mandate that immigration enforcement officers acquire judicial warrants for their operations.
“We represent conservatives and liberals. This is clearly very partisan legislation,” Trustee Daniel Hennek, the one dissenting member, said. “It’s trying to draw the town of Mancos into the partisan fight and support something that will certainly alienate a large portion of our residents who disagree with this type of policy.”
Despite his objections, other members pushed the letter of support through, tasking Town Administrator Heather Alvarez with presenting a draft to the board during their next meeting June 10.
Most agreed it aligned with their earlier values statement, published after an array of concerned community members alleged that ICE activity was stoking widespread fear among town residents.
Montezuma County Sheriff Steve Nowlin confirmed Wednesday’s ICE arrest outside his office, saying federal immigration officers likely checked public records for the suspect’s release date and waited outside to detain them following their exit. Nowlin said the sheriff’s office doesn’t work with federal immigration and has no jurisdiction over whether ICE picks up an inmate following their release.
“I have a job to do as far as protecting everybody. And we’ve never been asked by ICE to assist when they’re doing any type of an arrest,” Nowlin said.
Despite the chatter about ICE that has become a constant at Mancos Board of Trustees meetings, Nowlin doesn’t believe the agency or its officers pose a risk to Montezuma County residents.
“I don’t see them as a threat. I really don’t,” Nowlin said.
The law would ensure “somebody isn’t just getting taken by three yahoos in a truck,” Mancos Mayor Cindy Simpson said, voicing support for Bennet’s legislation.
“The basic premise of this request is requiring government to follow its own rules and to be civil and uphold legal behavior from government agencies. I have absolutely no problem with that,” she added.