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Audio By Carbonatix
An unidentified law enforcement agent put a 57-year-old woman in a chokehold and then threw her down a hill during a protest outside of an ICE field office in Colorado on Tuesday, October 28. The violent altercation was recorded by phone as hundreds gathered outside the facility to protest the arrest of a Colombian father and his two teenage children in Durango.
The Colorado Sun first published the video of the woman, reportedly named Franci Stagi, being grabbed by the hair, put into a chokehold and thrown down a grassy slope by an officer who has not been identified as part of any law enforcement agency. ICE has not responded to a request for comment.
Outside the the Durango ICE facility in southwest Colorado, protesters have been demanding the release of a father, Fernando Jaramillo Solano from Colombia, as well as his fifteen-year-old son and twelve-year-old daughter, since they were taken into ICE custody on October 27, the Sun reports. Protests started on Monday and carried on through the night into Tuesday morning. The incident with Stagi reportedly took place at 6 a.m. on October 28.
The minute-long video capturing the altercation starts with six or seven armed men in black masks hiding their faces as they walk around protesters outside the Durango ICE facility. The masked men are wearing windbreakers and vests labeled “Police” or “Police HSI” on the back and chest. HSI, or Homeland Security Investigations, is the main enforcement branch of ICE that focuses on international criminal cases, while Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) handles arrests and deportations on a broader level, including of all undocumented immigrants not involved in crimes.
In the video, Stagi approaches an officer with “Police” written across the front of his tactical vest, but a windbreaker is hiding the back of his vest and a black balaclava covers his entire head except his eyebrows and eyes. Stagi comes up and stands very close to him, with her phone pointed less than a foot from his right cheek as she records him.
“You’re a good Christian, aren’t you?” Stagi can be heard saying in the video published by the Sun, which was recorded by another protester.
Immediately after Stagi says that into the officer’s ear, he reacts by throwing his right hand up and taking Stagi’s phone. Stagi follows after him and says, “You can’t take my phone” while reaching towards his right hand. As soon as she touches his back, the officer spins around and pushes Stagi aside.
A person recording the incident can be heard saying, “You can’t do that. That’s illegal.” Another protester in the background can be seen and heard blowing a whistle as the incident plays out.
The officer then rushes towards Stagi and begins grabbing at her arms as she tries to keep some distance from him. The officer clutches her right arm and gets a fist full of her hair with his other hand before pulling her towards a grassy slope in front of the facility.
Protesters can be heard shouting at the officer as soon as he starts pulling Stagi. The other officers rush towards him as protesters yell at them to stop the situation.
“Get your hands off of her!” a protester shouts as Stagi pulls herself away from the officer’s grip. “Stop that shit!” someone screams.
Stagi manages to turn herself around and tries to run away from the officer, but he wraps his arms around her. Even as other officers surround them and look for a way to release Stagi from his grip, the officer tightens his right arm around Stagi’s neck, clearly putting her in a chokehold. You see a brief, terrified expression on Stagi.
“You need to get off of her right now,” says the person making the recording, who stays close to the whole scene and reaches out a mittened hand. The officer’s eyes open wide and look furious, and he seems to say “Shut the fuck up” before taking several steps towards the grassy slope and throwing Stagi down.
Stagi rolls about a quarter of the way down and hits the back of her head on the grass. “Call 911,” the person recording shouts while the officer looks down at Stagi.
Despite their masks, the other officers look shocked as they frantically turn their heads toward the officer involved and then back at Stagi on the ground. However, they all walk away together behind a chain-link fence without responding to protesters.
The Denver area has seen a handful of federal immigration raids in 2025, but Colorado’s Western Slope and more rural areas have experienced a heavy dose of ICE enforcement recently, as well. Along with expanding detention centers in Aurora and Ignacio, ICE also plans to open facilities in Hudson and Walsenburg. In September, a Routt County commissioner said that ICE agents followed her to a parking lot and “boxed in” her car after she recorded their activity near Oak Creek, a town of 900 people south of Steamboat Springs.
The same day the incident between Stagi and the unidentified officer occurred, it was reported that ICE’s field director in Denver had been sacked in favor of a senior Border Patrol official who is expected to ramp up enforcement.
