{"id":13936,"date":"2026-01-17T01:10:35","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T08:10:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorado-attorney-general-candidate-michael-dougherty-talks-ice-constitutional-rights\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T21:42:37","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:42:37","slug":"colorado-attorney-general-candidate-michael-dougherty-talks-ice-constitutional-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorado-attorney-general-candidate-michael-dougherty-talks-ice-constitutional-rights\/","title":{"rendered":"Colorado attorney general candidate Michael Dougherty talks ICE, constitutional rights"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Colorado
Colorado 20th Judicial District Attorney Michael Dougherty speaks to residents concerned about U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Durango and nationwide at an Indivisible Durango meeting Thursday. (Scout Edmondson\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Some 20 people gathered Thursday at the La Plata County Fairgrounds to meet Michael Dougherty, Colorado 20th Judicial District Attorney and candidate for Colorado attorney general. Constitutional rights and holding U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to account were at the front of many attendees\u2019 minds.<\/p>\n

The event, hosted by Indivisible Durango, a local pro-democracy advocacy group, was held in light of rising political tensions stemming from increased deportation operations carried out by ICE agents nationwide, including in Durango.<\/p>\n

Dougherty, who has served as an attorney for nearly three decades, first in the Manhattan (New York) District Attorney\u2019s Office and later in Colorado\u2019s Attorney General\u2019s Office, acknowledged that the topic of ICE\u2019s increased presence and legally questionable actions was a \u201cdifficult and troubling topic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dougherty advised that the goal for residents who want to protest the agency\u2019s actions is to be committed to nonviolence and avoid escalating conflicts with federal agents, while still gathering and recording agents as they carry out their operations.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to make sure that the people of Colorado are not hurt or killed, and that if they are, they are given justice,\u201d Dougherty said.<\/p>\n

Still, some members of the crowd who had come to see Dougherty voiced concerns that ICE was acting in defiance of the U.S. Constitution.<\/p>\n

\"Colorado
Colorado 20th Judicial District Attorney Michael Dougherty speaks to residents concerned with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Durango and nationwide at an Indivisible Durango meeting Thursday. (Scout Edmondson\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cIt\u2019s like bringing your constitutional rights to a gunfight \u2013 you\u2019re still gonna get killed,\u201d one attendee commented to Dougherty.<\/p>\n

Other attendees asked about the legality of ICE\u2019s use of masks, the use of force, arrests of American citizens rather than undocumented immigrants, and the cooperation of local law enforcement with ICE.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to fight for our communities, to fight for justice, but that doesn\u2019t mean we have to physically fight,\u201d Dougherty said. \u201cYou have a First Amendment right to free speech, you don\u2019t have a right to obstruct. You just escalate everything in that moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Knowing what is \u2013 and what is not \u2013 protected under the First Amendment can help keep protesters safe and avoid conflicts where they get hurt or killed, he said.<\/p>\n

For instance, attending a protest or filming ICE agents is protected under the First Amendment, but trying to physically obstruct them is not, and could result in the agents using force or performing arrests.<\/p>\n

Additionally, Dougherty brought up ways Colorado has worked to clarify what ICE is legally allowed to do.<\/p>\n

He said he helped work on Senate Bill 237<\/a>, which designated public schools and day care centers as places ICE legally could not make arrests on undocumented immigrants.<\/p>\n

Additionally, ICE agents are required to have a judicial warrant \u2013 one expressly signed by a judge \u2013 to enter private property, such as restaurants or private residences, he said.<\/p>\n

The law also prohibits local law enforcement agencies from working with or assisting federal agents in their operations, including sharing Flock camera data and asking people for their citizenship status.<\/p>\n

Dougherty also said that Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser will open a portal on the attorney general\u2019s website where residents can share their concerns and documentation of potential misconduct by ICE.<\/p>\n

\"Colorado
Colorado 20th Judicial District Attorney Michael Dougherty spoke to residents concerned by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Durango and nationwide at an Indivisible Durango meeting Thursday afternoon. (Scout Edmondson\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

sedmondson@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Residents raised questions about how to protest and how local law enforcement should respond to immigration operations<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13937,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[120,28,1025,107,826,1509,994],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-13936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-colorado","tag-headlines","tag-law-and-justice","tag-laws","tag-political-campaigns","tag-state-elections","tag-trueanthem"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13936"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13936\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19238,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13936\/revisions\/19238"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13936"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=13936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}