Colorado immigrant rights advocates and attorneys are raising legal concerns about reports of immigration enforcement operations occurring near a courthouse in downtown Denver this week.
The Colorado Rapid Response Network, an organization of immigrant rights groups that reports ICE activity, said it confirmed the apparent operation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Wednesday. It said officers — both in plainclothes and uniformed — detained three people outside of the Lindsey-Flanigan Courthouse after 9 a.m. who planned to attend or accompany someone to legal proceedings. The group said one man was separated from his 12-year-old son.
The network said it would report the detainments to local district attorneys and the American Civil Liberties Union, arguing that they count as violations of state law.
A Colorado law passed in 2020 bars ICE officers from making civil arrests in or around courthouses. According to the statute, civil arrests cannot occur at a courthouse or in the surrounding area or while a person is heading to, attending or leaving a proceeding — and immigration violations generally are a civil matter.
The rapid response group also said it spotted U.S. Department of Homeland Security vehicles and personnel parked between the courthouse and the Van Cise-Simonet Detention Center from 3:30 p.m. to about 5 p.m. Wednesday.
“It’s unconscionable that ICE would interfere with the justice system and due process in this way,” said Jordan Garcia, a spokesperson for the American Friends Service Committee, in a statement. “When ICE stations vehicles and agents close to courthouses, their presence causes fear and uncertainty that can prevent someone from accessing the courthouse.”
Colorado-based ICE leadership in the past have questioned the state law, arguing that detaining people near courthouses is better for public safety than carrying out operations in the community.
When asked to confirm and provide details about the Wednesday operation, ICE spokesperson Steve Kotecki said: “Due to our operational tempo and the increased interest in our agency, we are not able to research and respond to rumors or specifics of routine daily operations for ICE.”
The activity comes after large-scale ICE raids were launched in Denver and Aurora on Feb. 5. Potentially dozens of people were detained during those operations — some reports have put the number at 30 — but ICE spokespeople have declined to provide exact numbers so far.
Hans Meyer, an immigration and criminal defense attorney in Denver, said that if people heading into the courthouse were detained outside this week, then “that most likely violates our state statute protecting people against ICE courthouse arrests.”
Photos shared with The Denver Post show what appear to be law enforcement vehicles parked on the street near a public parking lot by the courthouse. Even if the detainments occur in a public area outside courthouse grounds, Meyer said, the state law still protects people from arrests for civil matters.
“It probably sets us up for the need to potentially litigate and force ICE to stay out of our courthouses,” Meyer said in a phone interview.
It’s a pattern with President Donald Trump’s past and new administrations, he added, since ICE arrests occurred near Denver courthouses during Trump’s first term. Those actions gave rise to Colorado’s 2020 law.
After that law was enacted, the then-acting field office director of ICE’s Denver office, John Fabbricatore, criticized its attempted restrictions on federal authorities.
“Across the country, ICE carries out arrests at courthouses in a professional manner against specific, targeted aliens with a final removal order or those who pose a public safety threat, some of whom have multiple criminal convictions,” he said in a 2020 statement.
On Wednesday morning, Lupe Gonzalez was walking east on West Colfax Avenue between Galapago Street and Fox Street — where the courthouse is located — when she said she noticed unmarked law enforcement vehicles with blue-and-red lights flashing: a Dodge Charger, a Ford Explorer and a Ford Expedition.
“I thought it was odd because it’s close to the courthouse,” Gonzalez, a Denver resident, said.
She stopped and took pictures at about 8:40 a.m. Gonzales described the officials gathered on the corner of Fox and Colfax as dressed in plainclothes, though one wore an army-green bulletproof vest.
Gonzalez said she watched officials put a man into a vehicle, and she called the Colorado Rapid Response Network’s hotline. She said a woman was also detained, then released.
Gonzalez spoke with the woman, who claimed the man was her son and he was heading into the courthouse for a hearing before he was detained with his friend.
“They ended up taking her son, who was the defendant, and his friend,” Gonzalez said in a phone interview. She did not know the names of the people involved.
“These enforcement actions by ICE grossly violated public trust with absolutely no benefit to public safety,” said Emma Mclean-Riggs, a staff attorney at the ACLU of Colorado, in a statement. “Separating a 12-year-old from their father, especially, is a profound, indescribable harm.”
Denver District Attorney’s Office spokesperson Matt Jablow declined to comment on the matter “until we determine exactly what happened.”
“We are now in the process of doing that,” he said.
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