{"id":16831,"date":"2025-08-19T22:16:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-20T04:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/ice-ramps-up-enforcement-in-four-corners\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:02:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:02:09","slug":"ice-ramps-up-enforcement-in-four-corners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/ice-ramps-up-enforcement-in-four-corners\/","title":{"rendered":"ICE ramps up enforcement in Four Corners"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Agentes
Agentes del ICE rompieron la ventana delanteras del coche de un hombre durante una detenci\u00f3n el lunes en el aparcamiento de un Safeway en Aztec.(Screengrab)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has ramped up activity in Durango and northwest New Mexico.<\/p>\n

Immigration officers smashed the front windows of a man\u2019s car during an arrest in a Safeway parking lot in Aztec on Monday, pulling him from the driver\u2019s seat while his girlfriend and two young daughters sat in the back, sources close to the family said.<\/p>\n

They were reportedly headed to Durango for a \u201cmeet the teacher\u201d event at the girls\u2019 school when ICE agents stopped the vehicle.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is state-sanctioned violence,\u201d said Enrique Orozco-Perez, executive director of Compa\u00f1eros: Four Corners Immigrant Resource Center. \u201c\u2026 This is what a fascist and an authoritarian government looks like.\u201d<\/p>\n

While his immigration status was not immediately known, the man detained is reportedly the son of two longtime Durango residents. ICE agents, assisted by the San Juan County Sheriff\u2019s Office, did not have an arrest warrant, Orozco-Perez said.<\/p>\n

The children were safely picked up by friends or family, but the full details remain unconfirmed as the family has not yet been reached for comment.<\/p>\n

ICE is \u201c100% escalating its activity in the region,\u201d Orozco-Perez said. \u201cThere\u2019s more ICE agents in town now, there\u2019s more vehicles.\u201d<\/p>\n

The activity continued Tuesday morning, when Durango residents reported two suspicious vehicles \u2013 a silver Chevrolet and a midnight-blue Chevy Tahoe, both with New Mexico plates and masked occupants \u2013 circling Lightner Creek Mobile Home Park, Orozco-Perez said.<\/p>\n

Community dispatchers responded and confirmed the vehicles belonged to ICE agents, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know there\u2019s kids from the school that live there that are not going to the first day of school today (Tuesday),\u201d Orozco-Perez said.<\/p>\n

Community members have also accused ICE of harassment saying agents were seen tailing a local resident with no active warrants.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese tactics are ugly. I think we need to really expose what they\u2019re doing. They\u2019re unconstitutional,\u201d Orozco-Perez said.<\/p>\n

Local activists said they overheard an ICE agent admit the agency sometimes acts on \u201cprobable cause\u201d rather than judicial warrants.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want everyone to really think critically \u2013 what is probable cause when it comes to ICE going after undocumented immigrants? Does that mean a brown body with an accent? Does that mean a brown or Black body that doesn\u2019t look like they\u2019re from this area?\u201d Orozco-Perez said.<\/p>\n

He added that deportation requires \u201chard evidence\u201d and judicial warrants. Agents should not be able to target residents without due process.<\/p>\n

ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

\"(Alex
(Alex Brandon\/Associated Press\/file)<\/span>dur-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>
Blatant disregard for state law<\/div>\n

Two people were detained in Durango on Tuesday morning while on their way to the La Plata County Courthouse.<\/p>\n

Colorado Senate Bill 20-083<\/a> prohibits civil arrests at courthouses or while individuals are traveling to or from court proceedings.<\/p>\n

ICE reportedly detained the people about three blocks from the courthouse.<\/p>\n

One was en route to a court proceeding; the other was described as \u201ccollateral damage,\u201d Orozco-Perez said.<\/p>\n

\u201cA part of the tactic here is they\u2019re deporting people as fast as possible because these civil rights violations and state law violations we\u2019re seeing by the time that people are in their country, they can\u2019t fight their cases,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s where these accelerated deportations are hurting our community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Durango Police Department under scrutiny<\/div>\n

Staff members with Compa\u00f1eros and the Colorado Rapid Response Network alleged that a Durango Police Department officer cooperated with ICE twice on Tuesday \u2013 a claim the department vehemently denied.<\/p>\n

They said Sgt. Dave Cunningham pulled over \u201ccommunity confirmers\u201d \u2013 rapid response volunteers who document ICE activity \u2013 and told them they were not allowed to interfere in ICE activities, which Orozco-Perez said was not happening. He said the stop allowed ICE agents to get away from the confirmer\u2019s eyesight.<\/p>\n

Additionally, Orozco-Perez said Cunningham was seen stopping traffic to allow a convoy of ICE agents, stopped in the middle of the road outside The Garage Billiards and Music Hall on West Eighth Street, to pass and make an arrest, Orozco-Perez said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe find that very suspicious, and we want to reiterate that in the state of Colorado, local law enforcement cannot cooperate with federal immigration agencies,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Durango police Chief Brice Current strongly refuted the claim that his department was in anyway assisting ICE.<\/p>\n

Current said Cunningham was present at the incident outside the courthouse but was not the responding officer. Another officer pulled over the confirmers after receiving a call from someone that they were being followed \u2013 which Current said was normal protocol for any incident like that.<\/p>\n

Regarding the claim that Cunningham directed traffic in order to aid ICE in making an arrest, that is also false and misleading, Current said.<\/p>\n

Cunningham responded to a blocked road and traffic backup, where he saw flashing lights and recognized the same federal agents from earlier in the day. He directed traffic to keep people safe but did not assist or collaborate with ICE, detain anyone or give directions to federal agents. Current stressed that his role was limited to traffic control and that portraying it as political involvement distorts the truth.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I\u2019ll say is that we feel like we have the community\u2019s trust \u2013 the entire community, even the immigrant community\u2019s trust here in town \u2013 that if they\u2019re in trouble, they can call us,\u201d Current said. \u201cAnd we don\u2019t want these types of incidents to be spun where it distorts trust, because our main goal is to make sure everyone\u2019s safe \u2013 everyone that comes into town, everyone that visits town, everyone regardless of their immigration status.\u201d<\/p>\n

Orozco-Perez, who immediately contacted Current with his concerns, said he was not inclined to believe those statements.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to throw the whole police department under the bus. The chief of police has been very responsive to my phone calls and has been very transparent,\u201d he said. \u201c\u2026 But the optics of it look awful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Compa\u00f1eros recommended that anyone who sees or hears of ICE activity, or needs support, call the Colorado Rapid Response Network at (844) 864-8341.<\/p>\n

jbowman@durangoherald.com<\/a> <\/em><\/p>\n

A previous version of this story gave an incorrect first name for Sgt. Dave Cunningham.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

car windows in Aztec, seen making arrests near Durango courthouse<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16832,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,904],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-16831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-immigration"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16831","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=16831"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16831\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20417,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16831\/revisions\/20417"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16831"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=16831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}