And that won't just include criminal offenders, according to Fabbricatore.
"Mass deportation isn't necessarily getting rid of all the criminals. It will encompass some people who are not committing crimes, but at the end of the day it will improve on our legal immigration system," he says. "At the end of the day, you came into this country illegally, and that needs to be dealt with."
Colorado immigrant-rights advocates have been in a state of constant reaction as Trump's executive orders come out of the White House, along with leaks and rumors.
When Trump took office on January 20, he signed executive orders that stopped refugee and asylum admissions, forced organizations aiding undocumented immigrants to stop their work, and attempted to end birthright citizenship. These orders have impacted local organizations that work with immigrants and refugees, including the African Community Center of Denver, International Rescue Committee and Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network.
"Trump is directing resources to terrorize our community by promising to separate parents from their children and target people at home and at work," RMIAN wrote in a February 6 statement. "This administration is stripping people of access to services that provide basic information to ensure due process is protected."
Since Trump took office, immigration and deportations have been top of mind in metro Denver. The president's mass deportation plan, often called Operation Aurora, is named after Colorado's third biggest city because of headlines claiming Aurora was taken over by violent Venezuelan migrants and the gang Tren de Aragua (TdA).
On February 5, ICE raided three Denver metro area apartment complexes, with more than 100 agents from ICE and other federal law enforcement agencies like the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Federal Bureau of Investigations, according to the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition. And more raids are expected.
Later that day, about 5,000 protesters gathered at the Colorado State Capitol to protest Trump's immigration policy, show Mexican and immigrant pride, and decry Project 2025, a conservative policy plan written by one of Fabbricatore's employers, the Heritage Foundation.
Fabbricatore's professional background is steeped in hardline immigration enforcement. For fifteen years, he worked as an agent for ICE, where he rose to a high rank, directing the agency's field office for Colorado and Wyoming from 2019 to 2022, when he left over concerns regarding the Biden administration. A former MMA fighter, Fabbricatore considers himself an expert on enforcing United States immigration laws, and he plans to leverage that experience with a new advocacy group, Strong Advocates For Enforcement in Colorado, or SAFE Colorado.
Later that day, about 5,000 protesters gathered at the Colorado State Capitol to protest Trump's immigration policy, show Mexican and immigrant pride, and decry Project 2025, a conservative policy plan written by one of Fabbricatore's employers, the Heritage Foundation.
Fabbricatore's professional background is steeped in hardline immigration enforcement. For fifteen years, he worked as an agent for ICE, where he rose to a high rank, directing the agency's field office for Colorado and Wyoming from 2019 to 2022, when he left over concerns regarding the Biden administration. A former MMA fighter, Fabbricatore considers himself an expert on enforcing United States immigration laws, and he plans to leverage that experience with a new advocacy group, Strong Advocates For Enforcement in Colorado, or SAFE Colorado.
What is SAFE Colorado?
According to a Fabbricatore, SAFE Colorado is funded by small donors, and will advocate for local and state officials to cooperate with federal law enforcement, including ICE, in an attempt to reverse the thinking of sanctuary jurisdictions, a term used to describe cities and states that refuse to work with ICE to deport immigrants. Colorado and Denver are often referred to as sanctuary jurisdictions because of their laws and resolutions, including restrictions on sharing information with ICE.
Governor Jared Polis said in his State of the State address in January that he welcomes the federal government's help deporting violent undocumented criminals, as has Denver Mayor Mike Johnston, who says that was the city's policy all along. But they both have also said they won't use law enforcement resources to assist in the raids and deportations of non-violent immigrants here illegally, nor will they assist in ICE activity at schools and churches.
Fabbricatore considers the arrest and deportation of undocumented immigrants who haven't committed crimes as "collateral." According to him, it's the only way to restore the integrity of the country's immigration system and to keep Colorado safe.
"I do think it is the right thing to get our hands around the immigration system as it is now," Fabbricatore says. "We have to deal with it now, or it will fester and grow."
Fabbricatore was born and raised in New York. He's been working in Colorado since 1998, mostly as an ICE agent, and lived in Aurora for most of that time, he says. A United States Air Force veteran and gun instructor, he has a shaved head, cauliflower ears (he went 2-0 as an MMA fighter) and big political aspirations.
"This is about improving things for our future, for our children and their future, for Colorado," Fabbricatore says. "The cartels have been bringing massive loads of drugs into Colorado for over twenty years, if not longer, and the problem was exacerbated in the last few years because of the last administration."
Fabbricatore accuses the Biden administration of poorly vetting immigrants by letting in thousands of migrants on parole through the asylum system. Parole is how many of the estimated 43,000 Venezuelan migrants who came to Denver during the past two years entered the country, according to the Denver mayor's office. Fabbricatore believes this allowed criminals to follow migrants, strengthening existing criminal networks and overwhelming local law enforcement.
"There's always been this criminal nexus, but when you add illegal immigration on top of the criminality we already have, it becomes a stressor for local law enforcement to deal with," he says. "You're only making local law enforcement's job harder in the long run."
Governor Jared Polis said in his State of the State address in January that he welcomes the federal government's help deporting violent undocumented criminals, as has Denver Mayor Mike Johnston, who says that was the city's policy all along. But they both have also said they won't use law enforcement resources to assist in the raids and deportations of non-violent immigrants here illegally, nor will they assist in ICE activity at schools and churches.
Fabbricatore considers the arrest and deportation of undocumented immigrants who haven't committed crimes as "collateral." According to him, it's the only way to restore the integrity of the country's immigration system and to keep Colorado safe.
"I do think it is the right thing to get our hands around the immigration system as it is now," Fabbricatore says. "We have to deal with it now, or it will fester and grow."
Who is John Fabbricatore?
Republican candidate Fabbricatore lost the election in November for Colorado's 6th Congressional District, which covers Aurora and Douglas County, to incumbent Democrat Jason Crow. Fabbricatore's campaign leaned on immigration and public-safety platforms, emphasizing in a statement that "our border is in crisis with fentanyl, terrorists, and other criminals crossing unvetted every day" through the southern border.
When an embattled Aurora landlord told the media in early August that his apartment complexes had been taken over by members of TdA, Fabbricatore quickly became involved. One of the apartment's residents, Cindy Romero, recorded six armed men walking through her hallway, and the footage went viral, generating headlines that Aurora was taken over by violent Venezuelan migrants with TdA.
Fabbricatore and Aurora Councilwoman Danielle Jurinsky helped Romero move out of her apartment at the Edge, and later, he went on Dr. Phil Primetime with both of them to talk about the broken immigration system and the criminal networks run by undocumented immigrants in Denver, Aurora and other interior cities.
However, other residents at the Edge of Lowry say the problem isn't gangs but slumlords neglecting the apartment and media distorting the facts and focusing on TdA.
In January, Fabbricatore was hired by the Washington, D.C.-based Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, as an expert on border security and immigration. Fabbricatore says he agrees with the priorities of Project 2025, which urges securing the border, finishing the border wall and deporting undocumented immigrants, according to the Heritage Foundation.
"It's a conservative-valued idea," he says. "Their plan for the border is something that I looked at, something I felt comfortable with."
However, the Heritage Foundation has also made headlines for lobbying to block voting rights in 2021, spreading misinformation during the 2024 election and exaggerating findings in its studies.
Even the Trump campaign tried to distance itself from Project 2025 last year, although the White House's policy orders have been similar since Trump took office on January 20, and he's appointed authors of parts of Project 2025 to important positions in his administration.
On January 22, SAFE Colorado announced its launch with Fabbricatore in the lead.
Colorado: Hot ICE Territory
"That's what we should be doing," Fabbricatore says. "That's making the community safer in the long run, and I would like to see that continue."
However, the DEA's Rocky Mountain Division later clarified that no one arrested in that raid would face federal charges because only "user quantities" of drugs were found.
Last week, the U.S. Northern Command, a military agency, announced that ICE will be using the Buckley Space Force Base to hold immigrants detained for deportation. According to Crow, who toured the facility on February 3, Buckley would only be used as a staging ground for ICE to coordinate deportations.
Fabbricatore thinks that Congressman Crow's tour was unnecessary. The Aurora ICE facility run by GEO Group, an international private-prison company, works well enough, Fabbricatore says. According to GEO, the company is investing $70 million in housing, transportation and security at the facility to "meet the anticipated requirements" of ICE and the Trump administration.
"I saw Buckley and what ICE wants to use Buckley for is its flight lines, being able to have a secure area where they're going to fly aircraft in and do a deportation operation," Fabbricatore adds. "They're not going to build detention centers. GEO has a great detention center that we're currently using. If they are going to open more detention centers, it's going to be in facilities rated to be detention centers."
Shortly before Johnston was called out to testify, Fabbricatore was in Washington, D.C., on January 22 for a hearing with the House Judiciary Committee, where he told them “sanctuary cities do not protect American citizens, they only protect illegal aliens.”
"When we are able to join together and cooperate, we only make the community safer," he added.
Like everything in politics today, "join together" and "cooperate" are open to interpretation.
