{"id":14134,"date":"2026-01-03T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T19:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/resident-arrested-by-ice-on-new-years-eve-lived-in-durango-for-22-years\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T21:44:06","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:44:06","slug":"resident-arrested-by-ice-on-new-years-eve-lived-in-durango-for-22-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/resident-arrested-by-ice-on-new-years-eve-lived-in-durango-for-22-years\/","title":{"rendered":"Resident arrested by ICE on New Year\u2019s Eve lived in Durango for 22 years"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Pedro
Pedro Gutierrez, back right, with his wife, Minerva, and his children, Daniel and Jazmin. Pedro was arrested in Durango by U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement on Wednesday on his way home from the Durango Community Recreation Center. (Courtesy of Daniel Gutierrez)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

New Year\u2019s celebrations were supposed to be particularly memorable for Pedro Gutierrez and his family, his son, Daniel, said on Friday. They would be \u2013 but not in the way the family had imagined.<\/p>\n

Daniel, 20, married his wife in August and his mother\u2019s sister had obtained a visa to visit Durango from Mexico. It would be the first time since Gutierrez left Mexico over 22 years ago that his whole family \u2013 his son\u2019s new family included \u2013 would be together. Gutierrez turned 43 on Dec. 26.<\/p>\n

But his New Year\u2019s plans were interrupted early Wednesday when U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement agents intercepted Gutierrez on his way home from the gym.<\/p>\n

Gutierrez was pulled over blocks from their home. He was pulled out of his vehicle by several federal agents and arrested, Daniel said. As of Friday, Gutierrez was in custody at the Denver Contract Detention Facility in Aurora.<\/p>\n

Gutierrez was not the only arrest made by ICE in the greater Durango area this week. The detention of a person in Mancos on Friday morning led to a protest outside the ICE field office in Durango\u2019s Bodo Industrial Park on Friday.<\/p>\n

The protest led to agents using pepper spray and threatening to shock people with a Taser.<\/p>\n

\"Pedro
Pedro Gutierrez Ruiz, 43, has been a resident of Durango for more than 22 years. He was arrested by U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement on Wednesday, New Year\u2019s Eve, on suspicion of being in the country illegally. (Courtesy of Daniel Gutierrez)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cMy father has been in this country for 22 years, and in 22 years my father\u2019s only crime is being in this country illegally,\u201d Daniel said, adding Gutierrez has no criminal record and has received maybe three speeding tickets in the past two decades.<\/p>\n

The Durango Herald<\/em> called the Denver ICE field office on Friday for comment. ICE spokesman Steve Kotecki said all questions must be submitted by email, saying, \u201cThat\u2019s just our policy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Herald <\/em>sent an email asking why Gutierrez had been arrested and detained, as well as information about his criminal history, but did not hear back as of 6 p.m. Friday.<\/p>\n

The arrest<\/div>\n

Daniel said he met his father and 16-year-old sister, Jazmin, at the Durango Community Recreation Center shortly after 5:45 a.m. for the family\u2019s regular exercise routine. After a workout, the father and son would work a half day for Daniel\u2019s painting company, Adonai Painting LLC, before going home around 1 p.m. to help prepare New Year\u2019s dinner.<\/p>\n

Recounting what his father told him, Daniel said Gutierrez left the gym with Jazmin and stopped for gas at the Marathon station on Main Avenue. Gutierrez felt uneasy \u2013 like he was being watched. He got back into his vehicle and headed home.<\/p>\n

On the way, Gutierrez told Jazmin to call her mother, Minerva, Daniel said. Gutierrez suspected he was being followed by ICE agents. He was about three minutes from home near Needham Elementary School when he turned onto Arroyo Drive and police lights flashed in his rear-view mirror.<\/p>\n

Daniel said Gutierrez pulled over and hadn\u2019t yet completely stopped when another vehicle pulled in front of him and stopped horizontally in the road, blocking him. Agents approached Gutierrez\u2019s vehicle, calling him by name and ordering him to exit.<\/p>\n

\u201c(Jazmin) said she could see the fear and the sadness in his face \u2013 of one of his biggest fears coming to life,\u201d Daniel said.<\/p>\n

Daniel arrived at the scene in his vehicle shortly after the stop.<\/p>\n

As soon as Gutierrez partly rolled his window down, an ICE agent reached inside the vehicle and unlocked the door, Daniel said. The door wrenched open and three agents immediately seized Gutierrez, unlocking his seat belt and pulling him out of the vehicle.<\/p>\n

\"Pedro
Pedro Gutierrez, 43, has been a resident of Durango for more than 22 years. He was arrested by U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement on Wednesday, New Year\u2019s Eve, for being in the country illegally. PICTURED: Daniel Gutierrez, left, Jazmin Gutierrez, Minerva Gutierrez and Pedro. (Courtesy of Daniel Gutierrez)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Gutierrez told the officers he wouldn\u2019t resist, but they didn\u2019t listen, Daniel said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe didn\u2019t resist in any kind of way. They unbuckled him. They were yanking him out of the car while my 16-year-old sister was in the car watching all of this happen,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

An agent yelled at Daniel when he approached the scene, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the officers insults me, tells me to \u2018Go the f\u2014 away,\u2019 that I can\u2019t be there, I can\u2019t pull up like that on a traffic stop,\u201d he said. \u201cI asked him why they were stopping him, where the warrant was, and they said, \u2018You have two options. Get the f\u2014 out of here or we\u2019re putting you under arrest.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Daniel said he backed off \u2013 he couldn\u2019t do anything for his father if he was in custody too.<\/p>\n

The agents told Jazmin, who was crying in Gutierrez\u2019s car, to leave.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy sister doesn\u2019t have a driver\u2019s permit, doesn\u2019t have a license, and my sister had to drive home,\u201d Daniel said. \u201cIt\u2019s not that far, but she had to drive home maybe two, three minutes away from my house, bawling her eyes out, not knowing what to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hard worker, family man, church member<\/div>\n

Daniel said Gutierrez is a hard worker and an avid churchgoer whose top priority is his family.<\/p>\n

A fundraiser for Gutierrez\u2019s legal fees on Givebutter.com<\/a> described him as \u201ca devout Christian since birth\u201d and \u201ca beautiful singer\u201d who has served as music director for a local church for the past 15 years and has volunteered for the community in other capacities.<\/p>\n

It said Gutierrez began work in Durango as a dishwasher, worked as a baker and now works as a painter.<\/p>\n

Daniel said his father met Minerva, his wife, after moving to Durango and fell in love with her and the city. Gutierrez was the breadwinner of the family. Now Daniel, he said, will have to step up to provide not only for his wife and himself, but his sister and mother too.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s nothing that we can\u2019t overcome,\u201d Daniel said. \u201cMy father did it when he came to this country. He worked his butt off.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said people immigrate to the U.S. in search of a better life \u2013 if they didn\u2019t need something better, they wouldn\u2019t bother.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t have many luxuries growing up, and I still don\u2019t, but I can\u2019t complain \u2013 I know my father is not gone,\u201d he said. \u201cHe\u2019s still here, and we pray to lord that he will be back very soon, and this nightmare will be over very, very soon.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A
A protester who declined to be identified has his eyes rinsed with water after being pepper sprayed outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office in Durango on Friday. (Shane Benjamin\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>
Mancos arrest spurs protest in Durango<\/div>\n

Three days after Gutierrez\u2019s arrest, ICE detained a person in Mancos, which sparked a protest Friday outside the ICE field office in Durango\u2019s Bodo Industrial Park.<\/p>\n

Beatriz Garcia, Western Slope regional organizer for the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition, said she did not have details about the arrested individual.<\/p>\n

A board member of Compa\u00f1eros: Four Corners Immigrant Resource Center who was present at the protest on Friday did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

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