The Denver Department of Transportation (DOTI) first noticed "the non-project related message" at 6 p.m. on Sunday, June 22, according to DOTI spokesperson Nancy Kuhn. The day the message went up, Denver's weather had started cooling down after a hot spell, setting up the clever jab at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the federal agency responsible for arrests and deportations.
The message boards belong to a contractor working with DOTI to install safer ramps between Broadway and Interstate 25, Kuhn says, and the messages can be written on controllers connected to the boards. "Someone outside the team broke the lock on the sign message board controller panel and changed the message," she adds.
Traffic message boards usually have innocent warnings about driving conditions, like "road closed ahead," or maybe an occasional traffic-centric pun. According to DOTI, a response team was onsite at the message boards within thirty minutes of noticing the "Fuck ICE" messages.
However, Denver residents say the message was displayed hours before DOTI finally noticed.
Traffic message boards usually have innocent warnings about driving conditions, like "road closed ahead," or maybe an occasional traffic-centric pun. According to DOTI, a response team was onsite at the message boards within thirty minutes of noticing the "Fuck ICE" messages.
However, Denver residents say the message was displayed hours before DOTI finally noticed.
Westword editor-in-chief Patricia Calhoun says the message was up at 1 p.m. on Sunday when she drove by.
"I almost crashed the car when I saw ‘Fuck ICE’ on that sign just before the I-25 entrance off Broadway." she says. "I know Denver is holding firm, but this was another f-word altogether."
"I almost crashed the car when I saw ‘Fuck ICE’ on that sign just before the I-25 entrance off Broadway." she says. "I know Denver is holding firm, but this was another f-word altogether."
According to DOTI, only one message board was hijacked, but social media users say they saw the same message displayed on Friday, June 20, on traffic message boards on East Colfax Avenue, where they're set up near construction for the incoming Bus Rapid Transit.
Since President Donald Trump took office, ICE has had three large raids in Colorado, including one in the Denver metro area where agents reportedly burst into homes with flash grenades and arrested people who showed asylum paperwork.
The public has been cranking up the heat on ICE, with protesters in Los Angeles drawing the National Guard and Marines. Denver protesters marched in solidarity with L.A. protesters and against ICE in early June, which resulted in confrontations with police and allegations of overuse of force by officers. During anti-ICE marches on June 10 and June 14, Denver protesters clashed with Denver police just outside of on-ramps to Interstate 25, which they were trying to enter in order to shut down traffic.According to the Denver Police Department, no one reported Sunday's traffic board incident as a crime, so police aren't investigating it.
