Arnie Carter stood on the third floor of the federal immigration courthouse in downtown Denver on Tuesday, monitoring the activities of federal agents who were walking around the halls.
The volunteer said he watched a man, with his partner and young son, leave the courtroom after an immigration hearing. Quickly, agents in plain clothes and masks grabbed the man and pushed him into the women’s bathroom. The man’s partner clung to him before agents threw the woman onto the floor, Carter said.
The immigration officials detained the man “very roughly, very violently” as their child watched, trembling and in tears, Carter said. Agents then took the man down the hallway and “disappeared him,” he said.
“They destroyed those people’s lives and they were brutal,” Carter said.
Carter said another volunteer was in the bathroom during the incident, yelling at the agents to stop and telling the couple in Spanish that they didn’t have to give up any information.
Immigration officers then detained, arrested, handcuffed and cited the legal observer, according to the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado. The observer, whom the organization did not name, was released but faced a citation under the code of federal regulations. It’s not clear what kind of citation the individual faces.
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Denver office said in a social media post Tuesday that an agent was “assaulted” that day at the Denver Immigration Court while performing their law duties. The agency did not divulge any additional details, including whether the agent was injured of whether anyone was arrested.
ICE officials in Denver have not responded to The Denver Post’s requests for information on the courthouse incident this week.
The agency told 9News that an assault did occur during the incident, saying agents “were challenged and impeded by members of the public, during which a brief confrontation occurred.”
Carter said the “only violence I witnessed that day was from ICE.”
He said he can’t stop thinking about the little boy trembling in the hallway and the look of sheer terror on the woman’s face.
“They deserve better,” Carter said. “They deserve to be treated as humans.”
At least eight people — six adults and two children — were detained at Denver’s federal immigration court in early June, advocates said in a news conference earlier this month.
The increased presence of immigration officers is a tactic linked to a larger strategy by President Donald Trump’s administration to help carry out its proposed mass deportations of immigrants who are in the country illegally.
In Colorado, ICE officers are prohibited from making civil arrests in or around state courthouses. However, federal courts aren’t governed by that 2020 state law.
Reports from around the country suggest ICE has begun arresting people at courthouses immediately after their immigration cases are dismissed or closed. If these individuals have been in the country for less than two years, they can be subject to expedited removal processes — which come with far fewer legal protections.
The White House this month demanded ICE sharply increase arrests of migrants in the U.S. illegally, Reuters reported, changing tactics to achieve higher quotas of 3,000 arrests per day, far above the earlier target of 1,000 per day.
The administration’s push has prompted widespread protests in Denver and cities across the country.
Get more Colorado news by signing up for our daily Your Morning Dozen email newsletter.
