Colorado Bassist Has Been in ICE Custody for Over a Month

As the Trump administration’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids continue across the country, Colorado has remained a lesser-known hotspot for the federal agency’s aggressive operations. Weeks after ICE agents in Minneapolis shot and killed Colorado-born protester Renee Good (and now, Alex Pretti, whose parents live in Arvada) the Aurora ICE Detention Center remains nearly full, with well over 1,000 individuals in custody, many of whom were taken the week of Christmas.

That number includes Marcos Flores, the bassist for local shoegaze outfit Summer of Peril, who was detained by ICE in Colorado Springs just days before the holiday. While his abduction is still being investigated by Colorado’s ACLU chapter, Westword has been in contact with Flores’s lawyer, Kristi Englekirk, as band members, friends and family have rallied to demand his release from ICE custody.

Flores was detained on December 23 while picking up a new visitor’s badge in order to perform contract work at the Colorado Springs Air Force Academy, where ICE was waiting for him. According to Englekirk, it’s still unclear how ICE received information about Flores. Englekirk says Flores is from Mexico but was brought to the U.S. as a young child, early enough that he doesn’t even remember Mexico or being brought to this country.

After he was taken into ICE custody, Flores’s band and family launched a GoFundMe page calling for his release, and the fundraiser garnered nearly $30,000 for legal fees in just a couple of weeks.

Flores had an initial bond hearing on January 16, when 34 friends and family members showed up to support him. Unexpectedly, the court only let two people into the courtroom, although the group had verified in advance that they would be allowed to witness the hearing.

Englekirk says a federal policy guidance memo went out just two days before Flores’s hearing, reversing an order in class-action case Maldonado Bautista v. Santacruz that held that the government was unlawfully subjecting detainees to no-bond detentions. She says the memo, which came down from Chief Immigration Judge Teresa L. Riley, directly affected Flores’s case.

As a result, his bond request was immediately denied without any explanation provided by the judge; the ruling means that Flores will have to remain in custody until his case is litigated.

“We filed a ton of evidence. He has a ton of community support. He’s got great equities,” Englekirk says of Flores’s denied bond request. “It feels very unfair that he is in this situation, and that a lot of people are in this situation, because people have been getting bonds in this situation for decades. And it just feels like they’re just under marching orders and trying to find any way they can to deny people and deport people.”

Flores’s lawyer is preparing a lawsuit against the federal government in response to the ruling.

Even as Flores is held in Aurora, the GEO Group, the private prison firm managing the Aurora ICE Detention Center, is planning operations at a new detention facility in Hudson, according to documents obtained by the ACLU.

According to the Denver Post, the Adams County Health Department is investigating the Aurora ICE facility over “multiple reports about possible gastrointestinal and respiratory illness.” The report also highlighted overcrowded housing pods; Englekirk estimates that close to 1,700 people may currently be in custody in Aurora. Some have been unable to show up to their hearings due to illness.

Earlier this month, an ICE report claimed there were 1,153 in custody at the detention center, of which 828 were labeled noncriminal detainees. Flores doesn’t have a criminal record, says Summer of Peril frontman Alex Forbes, “not even so much as a traffic violation.”

Forbes describes Flores as a “ray of sunshine” who “makes the best of every situation,” including the current one. “He seems to be holding it together, honestly, better than a lot of friends and family,” he adds.

With the ongoing stress of a bandmate detained by ICE, Forbes says that Summer of Peril had made the tough decision to cancel a tour to El Paso the band had booked for fall, owing to fears over Flores’s safety.

“That was another very, very frustrating thing: just the fact that another thing about Marcos is how hard-working and honest he is,” Forbes explains. “Something that I put in his character reference was how much he embodies…the traditional American values of integrity and honesty and hard work.”

Forbes and other close friends threw a benefit show for Flores on January 9 at the Black Sheep in Colorado Springs. The bill featured Anaideia, Tunnel Jumper, Playn for Keeps, Cortez, Lucked Out and Bangalore; the latter two also feature members of Summer of Peril. Forbes describes the atmosphere of the benefit show as “insane” and “very positive,” noting that attendees exuded a deep concern for Flores. He also says they tried to keep it hyper-focused on Flores, rather than “getting people riled up over politics” — even though many in the audience shared the same frustrations and sentiments about the situation.

“There was a lot of energy. You could feel it in the crowd,” Forbes says. “It was very, very overwhelming, but in a good way.”

The bill was hand-picked, featuring people and bands Flores admires within the scene. “We tried to stick with the bands that Marcos really had a lot of respect and admiration for,” Forbes notes.

The concert raised $4,360 for Flores’s legal fees; Forbes says he’s working on setting up another benefit show next month.

Additionally, Forbes says he and Summer of Peril guitarist Matt Lopez have kept Flores’ phone fully funded so community members can talk to him regularly. Close friends and family have also put together a visitation schedule for Flores on Google Docs, so individuals can sign up to go see him in person, albeit through glass and over a payphone.