U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement

"Show Me Your Papers" law on the road to repeal as new report condemns it

State lawmakers have passed a bill that repeals a much-criticized 2006 law requiring local law enforcement to report anyone they suspect of being undocumented to federal immigration authorities. The bill, HB1258, now heads to the governor's desk. Immigrant advocate Justin Valas credits the bill's p ... More >>

Immigration: Report says CO's "show me your papers" law costs $13 million per year

Colorado spends about $13 million a year to enforce a 2006 state law that requires local cops to report to federal immigration authorities arrestees who they suspect are undocumented immigrants, according to a report by the Colorado Fiscal Institute. Those reported to the feds spend an average of 22 ... More >>

Why does my money make my friends uncomfortable?

Immigration: Eldren's Josh Lee out of ICE custody but not in the clear

For six weeks, Eldren violinist Josh Lee waited in custody at the Immigration Customs and Enforcement detention center in Aurora after a recent criminal charge complicated his immigration status. As he collected money for his $20,000 bond, the Denver music community rallied around him, staging fund ... More >>

Immigration: The fight to stop deportation of Jose Luis Vazquez Campos

Jose Luis Vazquez Campos doesn't have much time. An undocumented immigrant, Campos must prove to federal immigration authorities that he's in Mexico on July 18, which means he'll have to board a bus in Denver on Sunday to get there. Yesterday, the American Friends Service Committee held a rally to a ... More >>

Photos: Twenty faces of accused child-porn fans

Yesterday, we told you about Jesse Evans, an alleged child pornographer -- and unfortunately, he's got plenty of apparent peers. The Colorado Internet Crimes Against Children website assembles photos and descriptions of accused creepazoids from across the state -- most of them white men, with only a ... More >>

Undocumented domestic-violence victim fights immigration rules

Ana Vasquez says she tried to explain to the police officers that it was her boyfriend who'd abused her, and not the other way around. She had a broken finger to prove it: In the midst of an argument that turned physical, her boyfriend trapped her fingers between his and twisted his hand, snapping o ... More >>

Immigration: Supreme Court's Arizona-law ruling meaningless, says Tom Tancredo

As we reported yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down portions of SB-1070, Arizona's controversial immigration law, but left standing the "show me your papers" provision, which lets officers ask about the immigration status of those found to be suspicious. Many local immigration activists wer ... More >>

Eldren's Josh Lee: Musicians rally around violinist detained by ICE

When the members of local experimental rock band Eldren gathered themselves and their gear together for a June 4 show at Aspen's Belly Up, they quickly noticed one person was missing: Josh Lee, the group's violinist, vocalist and electric guitarist. And then they received a call. From inside the Imm ... More >>

Immigrant rights group asks ICE to stay away from Strawberry Days Festival

Update below: Will federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement have a presence at this weekend's 115th annual Strawberry Days Festival in Glenwood Springs? That's what youth-led immigrant rights group AJUA wants to know. AJUA sent a letter to ICE, explaining that the agency's presence at last year's ... More >>

Latino activists prepare for the Supreme Court's ruling on Arizona's SB 1070

Feds may investigate collaboration between school resource officers and ICE in Colorado

Immigration advocates are hopeful that a new agreement between the Roaring Fork School District and three local police departments will put an end to the controversial collaboration between school resource officers and federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. But they also fear that the ... More >>

ICE surge in Aurora nets twelve immigrants subject to deportation

A federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement surge conducted in Aurora over seven days last week and early this week resulted in the identification of twelve immigrants subject to deportation, ICE spokesman Carl Rusnok says.

Photos: Immigrants and advocates protest ICE surge in Aurora

Today is the last in a seven-day "surge" being conducted in Aurora by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Their supposed target? Deportable aliens who have been arrested, or those issued court summonses who are fugitives or who have been previously deported or convicted of crimes. It's the summonse ... More >>

Update: ICE reviewing court summonses as part of immigration enforcement surge

Update: Immigration and Customs Enforcement has revised an earlier statement that ICE is screening traffic summonses in Aurora to identify undocumented immigrants who are fugitives, have been previously deported or have been convicted of crimes. The revised statement, sent two hours after the origin ... More >>

Thomas Wierdsma, private prison exec, accused of seeking to deport daughter-in-law

T. Wierdsma.​A high-ranking official at one of the nation's largest private prison operators has been accused by his daughter-in-law of intimidation and harassment in a Boulder domestic dispute -- including threatening to initiate a federal inquiry into her legal status by Immigration and Cust ... More >>

Tahlia Perea busted for smuggling 104 pounds of marijuana in quinceanera plaques

Big photos below.​A quinceanara is an important rite of passage for fifteen-year-old young women. But for Tahlia Perea, a passage she allegedly attempted at age eighteen proved problematic. She was busted for trying to cross the Mexico-U.S. border with more than a hundred pounds of marijuana ... More >>

Immigration: About 15 percent of Denver case subjects allowed to stay in U.S. after review

Preliminary numbers show that about 15 percent of the 7,923 immigrants whose cases were reviewed as part of a Department of Homeland Security pilot project in Denver will be allowed to stay in the country, says Laura Lichter, the president-elect of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. Those ... More >>

Lesbian couple in limbo as immigration pilot program officially ends today

Sujey and Violeta.​ Violeta Pando couldn't sleep last night. After all, today is the last for a six-week pilot program to review the deportation cases of all non-detained immigrants in Baltimore and Denver -- including the case of her wife, Sujey Pando. "The hours that I did sleep, which were ... More >>

Jared Polis wants investigation into abuse of LGBT immigrants in detention

Colorado Congressman Jared Polis has called for a government investigation into alleged abuse suffered by gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender immigrants detained by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE). "Here we have people who are at their most vulnerable -- many without access to any lega ... More >>

Gerardo Noriega receives administrative closure on deportation case, now waits in limbo

Gerardo Noriega.​Gerardo Noriega, a 21-year-old Smoky Hill High School graduate, now knows he won't be deported to Mexico in the near future, but his future is still in limbo. As part of the immigration review pilot program currently underway in Denver, Noriega was granted administrative closu ... More >>

Immigration review pilot program begins, immigrants and activists cautiously optimistic

Gerardo Noriega.​Laura Lichter, president-elect of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, describes prosecutorial discretion in the context of a police officer witnessing a bank robbery and jay-walking at the same time and knowing to stop the bank robber first. This is essentially the p ... More >>

Immigration review pilot program that may close low-priority cases coming to Denver

​ Local immigration advocates are cautiously optimistic about a pilot project to review open immigration cases in Denver and close those deemed to be of low priority. The program, described in this New York Times story, comes on the heels of a memo from the head of Immigration and Customs Enfo ... More >>

ACLU urges schools to adopt policy banning school police officers from working with ICE

​ The American Civil Liberties Union has jumped in on the debate simmering in Carbondale and Glenwood Springs over whether school resource officers should be allowed to collaborate with federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Immigrant rights activist groups protest renewal of GEO contract (PHOTOS)

The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), which brings people of various faiths together to work for social justice, peace and humanitarian service, has been holding vigils at the GEO detention center in Aurora each month since May 2009. So supporters were understandably discouraged when Immig ... More >>

Alvaro Agon, Carbondale cop, criticized for dual role as school police officer, former ICE liaison

​ In June, we told you about two men who were questioned by Immigration and Customs Enforcement at a carnival connected with Glenwood Springs' Strawberry Days festival. One of those men, Julio Alvarez-Cortez, has now filed a lawsuit against the officers involved, including Carbondale cop Alvar ... More >>

Reader: Illegal entry and residency doesn't justify busting immigrants at Father's Day fest

​Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents say they're focusing on criminal aliens -- and anti-immigration commenters point out that being in the U.S. without documentation is a crime. But not one big enough to justify arrests at Strawberry Days in Glenwood Springs on Father's Day, one reader ... More >>

Immigration: Advocate decries Father's Day raid on Glenwood Springs' Strawberry Days fest

​Glenwood Springs' Strawberry Days festival has been an area staple for more than a century, and this year's edition featured train rides, a pirate-coloring contest, a pie-eating challenge and a search for a "Glenwood Idol," among many other scheduled events. But one happening wasn't announced ... More >>

Immigration and Customs Enforcement busts 81 "criminal aliens" in Colorado, Wyoming

​Immigration and Customs Enforcement's announcement of over 2,400 arrests -- 81 of them in Colorado and Wyoming -- stresses that ICE is focusing on rounding up criminal aliens. This emphasis makes sense given mounting evidence here and nationwide that assorted authorities are going well beyon ... More >>

Immigration and Customs Enforcement renews promise to focus on deporting serious criminals

​ Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has renewed its promise to focus on serious criminals for detention and deportation. "A new policy directs ICE officers and attorneys to use appropriate discretion to make sure victims and witnesses to crimes are not put into deportation proceedings, ... More >>

Dennis Sieving, driving instructor, accused of passing drivers who failed or didn't take test

Dennis Sieving.​Here's a frightening thought: Around 1,500 drivers who didn't pass, or didn't even take, a driving test may have been on Colorado roads for months. That's the accusation against Dennis Sieving, 53, who's been indicted by a federal grand jury for male fraud and bribery. And tho ... More >>

Denver Police Dept. immigration memo doesn't mean this is a sanctury city, spokesman says

​KHOW's Peter Boyles has obtained an April 25 memo from Denver Police Chief Gerald Whitman that reads in part, "EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY, DENVER POLICE OFFICERS SHALL NO LONGER ADD A CHARGE OF OR WRITE 'REFER TO IMMIGRATION' ON ARREST OR CHARGING DOCUMENTS." But while Boyles sees the directive as ... More >>

Colorado immigration partnership with feds wrongly focusing on non-criminals, study says

​ A program that delegates federal immigration enforcement powers to local officers is not netting as many serious criminals in Colorado as in other states, says a study released today by the Migration Policy Institute.

Secure Communities: Colorado signs on to fingerprint check for illegal immigrants

www.ice.gov​Colorado is the latest state to join Secure Communities, a federal program that checks fingerprints of people booked into local jails against a national database of illegal immigrants.

U.S. Government seizes piracy websites

​Things just keep getting worse for media pirates. In the last year, we've seen Google tackle music blogs, Limewire go the way of the dodo, and Pirate Bay's appeal thwarted. Now the U.S. government is getting involved. Last week, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) seized domains from To ... More >>

Azimdzhon Mazhidov, 15 others from Russia, Tajikistan charged with ripping off $300,000

Large pics below.​Azimdzhon Mazhidov is accused of getting rich with a little help from his friends. He's among sixteen defendants from Russia and Tajikistan charged with stealing more than $300,000 from assorted banks. But they didn't use guns. Instead, according to an indictment on view belo ... More >>

ICE seizes torrent websites in Wack-a-mole-esque operation

Kicking ass and seizing websites​When U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) isn't prowling our borders for drug traffickers, it's prowling our digital borders and shutting down torrent domains that facilitate the piracy of copyrighted material. But seizing a domain name is a lot like ... More >>

Cyber Monday ripoffs: See 7 Colorado website domains seized for selling counterfeit goods

​Overwhelmed by the number of sites offering Cyber Monday deals? Well, now there are 82 of them, including seven in Colorado, you don't need to visit -- because their domains have been seized for allegedly selling counterfeit or copyrighted goods. See the list and get more info from the Justic ... More >>

Immigration and Customs Enforcement's latest roundup: 85 "criminal aliens" busted by ICE

​Immigration and Customs Enforcement continues to emphasize that it's focusing on arresting so-called criminal aliens -- and it's lassoed plenty in these parts of late. In September, ICE busted 78 people -- and of the 6,617 folks grabbed in the Denver area during fiscal 2010, 4,447 were said t ... More >>

Reader: ICE is racist because agency targets Spanish speakers, ignores whites with no papers

​Some interesting comments on our post about the ACLU filing a complaint against Immigration and Customs Enforcement for detaining a busload of Spanish speakers heading to an Amway Convention. Here are two of the most pointed.

Reader: If ICE raids Tom Tancredo-Gustavo Arellano debate, Tancredo might get deported

Tom Tancredo.​We're busy preparing for tomorrow's debate between Tom Tancredo and "Ask a Mexican" columnist Gustavo Arellano -- and so are many readers requesting tickets. (Click on the link above for more info.) One, however, worries that Immigration and Customs Enforcement might attend the e ... More >>

ACLU files claim against ICE for harassing U.S. citizens en route to Amway convention

​Today, the American Civil Liberties Union announced a formal administrative complaint against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) over an April incident during which dozens of Spanish speakers aboard a Denver charter bus were detained under suspicion of human smuggling. Turns out the ri ... More >>

Road to nowhere: The men who are caught transporting illegal immigrants rarely pay the price

Opas Sinprasong, Siamese Plate owner, pleads guilty to treating workers like slave labor

NaRaYa has replaced Siamese Plate on the Go​I was at Lotus of Siam, one of Lori Midson's favorite restaurants in the world (and she's right -- too bad it's in Las Vegas), eating and catching up on my Westword reading, when I found this report by Michael Roberts on a Thai restaurant group much ... More >>

Opas Sinprasong pleads guilty to running his Siamese Plate restaurants like slave ships

Daily CameraOpas Sinprasong.​When it came to taking advantage of his employees, Opas Sinprasong, who owned several Boulder-area Siamese Plate restaurants, appears to have been an expert. Sinprasong pleaded guilty to harboring illegal aliens and failing to pay taxes -- offenses likely to result ... More >>

Immigration busts: In fiscal 2010, ICE took 6,617 people from Denver area, 4,447 criminals

​Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is focusing on busting criminal aliens -- like the 78 people recently rounded up statewide. And there's more where they came from. ICE has just released statistics for fiscal 2010, which ended September 30. The arrestee total for the Denver area of re ... More >>

ICE arrests focus on criminal aliens: 78 busts include man convicted of making terrorist threat

​These days, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, better known as ICE, emphasizes that it's targeting criminal aliens, not otherwise law-abiding citizens who lack documentation authorizing their U.S. residency. And that's the theme of ICE's latest Colorado busts. Of the 78 people rounded up fr ... More >>

Immigration Center protesters target new Obama policy: See photos of the event here

Full-sized photos below.​While most of us relaxed and had fun on Labor Day, approximately sixty people affiliated with organizations such as the American Friends Service Committee and Comite en Defensa del Pueblo protested immigration policy at Aurora's GEO Detention Center, as they've done si ... More >>

ICE, Loveland Police arrest eleven in operation targeting "foreign-born gang members"

Courtesy US Immigration and Customs EnforcementICE men in action.​Amid the uproar stirred by the new Arizona immigration law -- travel bans by Denver Public Schools and the City of Boulder, plus student walkouts and weekend rallies -- US Immigration Customs and Enforcement, known as ICE, conti ... More >>

ICE deportations in Denver set record; see the release here