Scared Denver kids were sending letters to Trump asking him not to deport them. A couple weeks into office in 2017, Trump signed an executive order banning foreign nationals from several predominately Muslim countries from entering the country, and protests broke out across the country, including at Denver International Airport. A month later, Mexican immigrant Jeanette Vizguerra, who had been battling deportation from her home in Denver since 2009, took sanctuary in the First Unitarian Church for three months after missing an appointment with federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE); her standoff brought national attention until the agency suspended the deportation order.
When Trump returned to the White House to start his second term on Monday, January 20, he moved swiftly to tighten immigration. On Monday, he signed a slew of executive orders, including measures that would halt refugee resettlement and the asylum process. Trump also attempted to stop birthright citizenship with an executive order, but a judge blocked the order on Thursday, January 23 after nearly two dozen attorneys general, including Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, filed a lawsuit against it.
Trump also declared an emergency at the southern border with Mexico, with promises to send the armed forces and additional resources and barriers. His administration has said that ICE raids have started or are coming soon to interior cities, as well.
It's a familiar feeling for undocumented immigrants still living in Denver today.
In the early years of Trump's first term, ICE was arresting undocumented immigrants in a Denver probation office and in Colorado courthouses until state lawmakers banned the practice in 2020.
Alan Salazar is currently the CEO of Denver Water, but in 2017 he was the Chief of Staff for former Mayor Michael Hancock. He and Hancock met with undocumented immigrants in Denver in January 2017 shortly after Trump first took office, and he remembers they "were fearful just like they are now."
"There was real fear that they were going to be deported or under investigation. There was a lot of fear in the community," he says. "There was an immediate concern with what the administration might do with undocumented residents in Denver."
From October 2016 to September 2017, the ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations arrested more than 2,700 people in its Denver area of responsibility, which covers Colorado and Wyoming, and nearly 2,800 in fiscal year 2018. During fiscal year 2019, the agency arrested more than 2,400 before the numbers dropped to more than 1,400 in fiscal year 2020 due to the pandemic.
City officials also worried about how Trump would treat Denver, which is viewed by many Republicans as a sanctuary city. Although Salazar and Hancock avoided using the term to describe Denver, Trump signed an executive order in January 2017 that threatened to restrict federal grants from sanctuary jurisdictions, including cities that refused to cooperate with ICE.
"There was also a rationale about putting some clarity around the way the city collaborates or communicates with ICE and takes on its responsibilities," he says. "Denver made a decision with that ordinance that Denver was not going to require city employees or law enforcement to do the work of ICE, but we would communicate with ICE about the release of people from our jail.""There was real fear that they were going to be deported or under investigation. There was a lot of fear in the community," he says. "There was an immediate concern with what the administration might do with undocumented residents in Denver."
From October 2016 to September 2017, the ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations arrested more than 2,700 people in its Denver area of responsibility, which covers Colorado and Wyoming, and nearly 2,800 in fiscal year 2018. During fiscal year 2019, the agency arrested more than 2,400 before the numbers dropped to more than 1,400 in fiscal year 2020 due to the pandemic.
City officials also worried about how Trump would treat Denver, which is viewed by many Republicans as a sanctuary city. Although Salazar and Hancock avoided using the term to describe Denver, Trump signed an executive order in January 2017 that threatened to restrict federal grants from sanctuary jurisdictions, including cities that refused to cooperate with ICE.
"The rhetoric was very hot at the time, and there was fear that we would lose federal funding. There was a lot of chatter that we were going to lose federal funding," Salazar says. "It was very stressful to think there might be friction with the federal government."
The city already had rules against using city resources to help ICE deport immigrants and letting city employees ask anyone about their immigration status. The Denver City Council wanted to undocumented immigrants to trust local law enforcement, so it codified those rules to ensure their privacy with an ordinance passed in August 2017. The ordinance also cleared up whether Denver would work with ICE, Salazar says.
Denver Mayor Mike Johnston's current stance on working with ICE mirrors the idea behind the 2017 ordinance. According to a statement from the mayor's office, its current policy for working with ICE is to only help deport violent criminals.
"If an undocumented immigrant commits a violent crime in our city, we will arrest and prosecute them just as we would any other individual. If the city receives a release notification request from ICE for someone in custody, we will comply," according to the mayor's office. "However, our law enforcement officers are not immigration officers, and we will never ask them to do the work of the federal government via immigration enforcement. We will not support ICE with any non-criminal immigration enforcement operations."
The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE and Border Patrol, has lifted restrictions on conducting deportation raids or arrests in formerly off-limits spaces like hospitals, churches and schools.
Last week Johnston said the city would sue Trump's administration if federal agents are instructed to detain Denver residents at those "sensitive locations." Denver Public Schools has issued guidance to staff, students and parents if ICE agents appear at DPS campuses, with instructions for staff to deny agents entry and ask for warrants or court orders.
Governor Jared Polis said during his January 9 State of the State address that he welcomes the federal government's help with deporting "dangerous criminals" but wouldn't work with them to deport law-abiding immigrants.
The Trump administration did list Denver as a sanctuary jurisdiction in a 2018 subpoena demanding proof they're not keeping undocumented immigrants from ICE. But the threat of cutting federal funding "never materialized, I think, because there are limits on how you can threaten a city," Salazar says. Either way, "if the administration felt strongly that Denver had done something wrong, they would have brought some legal action at the time. They never did that."
But Salazar warns that even though the Trump administration didn't follow through despite using the same anti-immigrant rhetoric, he believes the president's administration is more active this time.
The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE and Border Patrol, has lifted restrictions on conducting deportation raids or arrests in formerly off-limits spaces like hospitals, churches and schools.
Last week Johnston said the city would sue Trump's administration if federal agents are instructed to detain Denver residents at those "sensitive locations." Denver Public Schools has issued guidance to staff, students and parents if ICE agents appear at DPS campuses, with instructions for staff to deny agents entry and ask for warrants or court orders.
Governor Jared Polis said during his January 9 State of the State address that he welcomes the federal government's help with deporting "dangerous criminals" but wouldn't work with them to deport law-abiding immigrants.
The Trump administration did list Denver as a sanctuary jurisdiction in a 2018 subpoena demanding proof they're not keeping undocumented immigrants from ICE. But the threat of cutting federal funding "never materialized, I think, because there are limits on how you can threaten a city," Salazar says. Either way, "if the administration felt strongly that Denver had done something wrong, they would have brought some legal action at the time. They never did that."
But Salazar warns that even though the Trump administration didn't follow through despite using the same anti-immigrant rhetoric, he believes the president's administration is more active this time.
"The rhetoric seems just as hot as it was then, coming from the federal government, but with the executive orders, it seems like a more heightened risk today than it was in 2017," he says. "It does feel different now, but I don't know if it will be different."
The Denver area has seen federal immigration enforcement one week into Trump's presidency. On the early morning of Sunday, January 26, the Drug Enforcement Administration, along with federal Customs and Immigration Enforcement, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and Homeland Security Investigations, conducted a raid at what officers described as a "makeshift nightclub" in which almost fifty people were arrested.
According to an announcement from the DEA, 41 of the people arrested appear to be undocumented immigrants, and the nightclub had ties to the Venezuela-based gang Tren de Aragua.
The Denver area has seen federal immigration enforcement one week into Trump's presidency. On the early morning of Sunday, January 26, the Drug Enforcement Administration, along with federal Customs and Immigration Enforcement, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and Homeland Security Investigations, conducted a raid at what officers described as a "makeshift nightclub" in which almost fifty people were arrested.
According to an announcement from the DEA, 41 of the people arrested appear to be undocumented immigrants, and the nightclub had ties to the Venezuela-based gang Tren de Aragua.
