Raids by ICE alongside the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) in the Denver metro and Colorado Springs show that Trump is following through on his promise of mass deportations. He even named the plan "Operation Aurora" in October during a visit to the city, which was the center of claims of violent gangs of Venezuelan migrants taking over apartment buildings.
While three major raids have taken place, ICE has also made numerous arrests on smaller scales in Colorado, most notably the arrest of Jeanette Vizguerra, a Mexican immigrant who made national headlines during her effort to take sanctuary in a Denver church in 2017. On April 1, a team of U.S. Marshals and ICE agents boarded an RTD bus on Colfax Avenue to arrest a Venezuelan man who escaped the Aurora ICE detention facility. On April 17, local activists recorded two masked ICE agents detaining at least two men outside of a Douglas County courthouse.
But the larger raids have shown a pattern of the ICE planning secretive, sweeping raids supposedly aimed at rounding up members of violent Latin American gangs. Here's a look at the major raids in Colorado that have attracted national media attention.
January 26: "Makeshift" Nightclub Raid in Adams County
Less than a week after Trump was inaugurated this year, members of ATF, DEA and ICE raided a warehouse being used as a nightclub at the 6600 block of Federal Boulevard in Adams County. More than 100 members of local law enforcement also took part in the early morning operation.According to the DEA Rocky Mountain Division, agents arrested nearly fifty people, including 41 undocumented immigrants, at least four U.S. citizens and dozens of members of Tren de Aragu (TdA), the Venezuelan gang at the center of the apartment controversy in Aurora. The DEA reported finding large amounts of currency, fentanyl, cocaine and tusi, or pink cocaine, at the "invite-only" party going on in the warehouse.
However, no one who was arrested in the raid ever faced criminal charges. Although the operation was meant to target drug traffickers and undocumented immigrants, agents only seized user quantities of drugs, the Denver Post reports.
The 41 undocumented immigrants arrested in the raid still faced deportation, though.
According to Colorado Public Radio, a Venezuelan man detained at the Aurora ICE facility who was nabbed in the raid joined a lawsuit to stop his deportation to El Salvador, where the Trump administration has sent undocumented immigrants to be incarcerated in the infamous CECOT prison without due process. On April 14, a Denver judge put the Venezuelan man's deportation on hold by ruling that Trump couldn't use the 18th-century Alien Enemies Act to deport anyone without giving them a federal hearing first, the Aurora Sentinel reported. The man, known in the lawsuit as D.B.U., also denied having ties to any gang.
According to the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition (CIRC), among the nearly fifty people arrested were six immigrants with work permits or one with Temporary Protected Status, which should allow them to live and work legally in the United States.
February 5: Chaotic Raids at Denver and Aurora Apartments
On February 5, ICE raided four apartments in Denver and Aurora, including the notorious Edge of Lowry, which was one of the apartments that national and international headlines claimed was taken over by TdA. More than 100 agents from ICE and other federal and local law enforcement agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), raided the Edge as well as the Cedar Run complex in Denver and two more apartment complexes in Aurora during the mid-day raid.Unlike the January 26 raid, ICE and other federal and local law enforcement were targeting people at their homes. According to the DEA Rocky Mountain Division, the operation was meant to target more than 100 members of TdA.
Activists with CIRC and other local groups criticized how violent the raid was, mentioning reports by tenants of ICE agents using smoke and flash grenades as they went door to door.
“ICE destroyed a tenant’s door, completely ripping the locks off the door handle itself, and entering without a warrant," said Kayla Frawley, an organizing director with the Colorado People's Alliance, in a February 6 statement. "Neighbors that were impacted informed us that ICE shot rubber bullets at tenants in their pursuit — terrorizing the entire neighborhood.”
According to staff for Congressman Jason Crow, some of those arrested were sent to the Buckley Space Force Base to be detained before deportation. ICE announced in late January that it would be using the base as a holding location and headquarters for local operations.
Denver and Aurora area schools saw an immediate dip in attendance in the following days, the Aurora Sentinel reported. The raid led to a lawsuit by Denver Public Schools, which alleged that ICE prevented school buses from picking up students and scared parents into keeping their kids home from school. DPS sued to reinstate a federal policy that prevents ICE raids in sensitive locations like churches, courthouses and schools, but on March 7, a federal judge rejected the lawsuit.
The raid came the same day as the Fifty State Protest, which kicked off a series of protests this year denouncing Trump's immigration policies. Anger about those raids carried into the protest and has contributed to outrage over Trump policies seen at rallies at the Colorado State Capitol since.
April 27: Colorado Springs Secret Nightclub Raid
Colorado went without news of a major ICE raid for nearly three months after the first two happened in a span of less than two weeks. But on Sunday, April 27, a pre-dawn raid by ICE and other federal agents of another makeshift club, this time in Colorado Springs, led to the arrest of more than 100 people. More than 300 officers, including U.S. Marshals and El Paso County Sheriff's deputies, were involved in the raid.Once again, federal law enforcement claimed that the operation was meant to target criminal gang members. According to the DEA Rocky Mountain Division, drug traffickers and prostitutes were operating out of the club, and cocaine, the recreational drug tusi, and weapons were found inside. U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said that same day that the people arrested in the raid were "terrorists" with TdA and MS-13, an El Salvadoran gang that Trump declared a foreign terrorist organization along with TdA. Two men arrested in the club had outstanding warrants, one for missing a court appearance and the other for misdemeanor assault, criminal mischief and child abuse charges, reports the Colorado Springs Gazette.
About 17 active duty military members were at the club as guests or guards and were among those arrested, including some from the Fort Carson Army Base, CPR reports.
Immigrant rights groups decried not only the raid but also the language by the Trump administration and law enforcement that framed it as making communities safer.
"Once again, federal agencies are masquerading mass deportation raids as public safety operations," said Raquel Lane-Arellano, a CIRC spokesperson, in an April 28 statement. "They're lying to the public, stoking fear to justify mass arrests, and using local police and the DEA to give cover to a federal deportation agenda."
CIRC is also challenging the claim that gang members were arrested in the operation, saying in an April 28 statement that "officials have not produced evidence connecting those detained to organized crime." According to CIRC, very few, if any, of the more than 200 people arrested in the three major raids across Colorado are gang members.
