Across Colorado, but especially in Costilla County, officials are contending with off-the-grid residents who hold “sovereign” beliefs and do not observe the laws of the U.S. government.
Since the election of President Trump in November 2016, there has been an uptick in hate crimes across the nation. Denver is no exception, with some notable examples: Eight days after the election, on November 16, a transgender woman in Capitol Hill found her car spray-painted with swastikas and the…
Encountering masses of intoxicated young adults stumbling along Larimer Street between 27th and 28th streets isn’t all that uncommon on weekends — especially since that part of RiNo is packed with trendy bars including the Meadowlark, Cold Crush, Nocturne and Larimer Lounge. The difference on Saturday, May 21, was that drunk people…
On Friday morning, May 19, Mayor Michael Hancock and other Denver officials announced at the city’s annual Housing Summit a number of new initiatives to address homelessness, rising rent costs and a lack of affordable housing in Denver. Mayor Hancock opened the summit, which was held at the Hyatt Regency…
Have you ever wondered how Colorado’s legislature works? Or perhaps you don’t care, because you’re convinced that all politicians are corrupt. In either case, former state senator Linda Newell, a Democrat who recently finished an eight-year term representing Littleton at the State Capitol, hopes that a video documentary series she’s…
When Jeanette Vizguerra took sanctuary in the basement of the First Unitarian Society in mid February, the undocumented mother of four from Denver became one of the faces of resistance to President Trump and his platform of increased immigration enforcement. Vizguerra’s story has been carried by publications across the globe,…
Five days into his presidency, Donald Trump told ABC News’s David Muir that DREAMers — young undocumented immigrants that are currently protected under a provision enacted by President Obama called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) — needn’t worry about deportation under this new administration. “They shouldn’t be very worried. They…
The Meyer Law Office released two videos that show agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement are continuing to arrest suspected undocumented immigrants in and around Denver’s courthouses, despite the City of Denver sending ICE a letter on April 6 asking that agents stay away from “sensitive…
When one of my roommates first asked me if she could host two people at our house last weekend, I said “of course” and didn’t think much more of it. But when I later found out that our two guests were bicycle tourists who’d been pedaling around the globe for years, I got really excited.
Erik Soliván is Denver’s latest hope when it comes to bridging the gap between homelessness, affordable housing and home ownership; even the name of his department, the Office of HOPE (Housing and Opportunities for People Everywhere), suggests as much. In January, Soliván was selected to head up the new department…
Since early February, a coalition of immigrant rights advocates, lawyers and community members have been working on a detailed sanctuary-city policy that they hope the City of Denver will adopt into law. The policy was unveiled on Thursday night at the Denver Inner City Parish before a standing-room-only audience that…
Today, Thursday, April 27, U.S. District Court Judge William Martinez granted class certification in a lawsuit that challenges Denver’s homeless sweeps. According to the attorney representing the plaintiffs, Jason Flores-Williams, the ruling is historic: It was made on civil-rights grounds, and the certified class covers every single person who finds themselves…
Arturo Hernandez Garcia, a Mexican immigrant who made headlines when he spent nine months in sanctuary during 2015 at the First Unitarian Society in Denver, has reportedly been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. Hernandez Garcia was the subject of a Westword cover story, “Sacred Ground.” He’s been fighting…
After Donald Trump’s inauguration on January 20, the American Civil Liberties Union launched a major grassroots resistance platform called People’s Power. With help from the Bernie Sanders campaign, the movement’s website, peoplepower.org, has been a hub and organizing tool for creating events across the country. On Tuesday, one of those…
There’s nary a dull moment at the Stanley Hotel, the iconic lodging in Estes Park that was the inspiration for Stephen King’s The Shining. Under owner John Cullen, the Stanley is trying to become the epicenter of the worldwide horror-film industry by constructing a $24 million film center — even if there…
On Wednesday, state lawmakers on the House Local Government committee heard from over sixty people who testified in favor of the Right to Rest Act, which would have banned law enforcement agencies and municipalities across Colorado from “criminalizing” homelessness by issuing citations or arresting anyone who rests, sleeps and eats in…
Time magazine’s annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world was just announced, and it includes someone in Denver who has been making international headlines lately: Jeanette Vizguerra. Vizguerra is a well-known activist and undocumented mother of four who has taken sanctuary at the First Unitarian Society in…
There was a moment during Monday’s Denver City Council meeting that felt like déjà vu for anyone who happened to be at another council meeting way back on October 26, 2015: the sudden swinging open of chamber doors, the single-file line of activists marching up to surprised councilmembers, a barrage of…
Keeping up with all of the developments around immigration and customs enforcement these days is proving to be quite the task; under the Trump administration, rarely a day goes by when there isn’t some noteworthy action from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or a policy change coming out of Washington,…
A bill that aims to create a task force to provide support — including mental-health services — to Colorado’s child-welfare caseworkers crossed its first hurdle on Tuesday, April 11, when it passed out of the House Public Health Care and Human Services Committee by a vote of ten to three. During the nearly two-hour…
Fans of Bon Iver know the story: In late 2006, Justin Vernon decided to hole up in a cabin in the woods outside of his hometown of Eau Claire, Wisconsin, to lay his soul and heartache into an album he was recording.
Since President Donald Trump took office, attorney Hans Meyer has been at the forefront of multiple Colorado campaigns regarding immigration. He not only documented the presence of ICE agents at the Denver courthouse, but is the lawyer representing Jeanette Vizguerra, a mother of four who took sanctuary in a Denver church to avoid deportation.
