Two children and their father on their way to school were detained by federal immigration agents in southwestern Colorado on Monday, sparking protests from demonstrators who tried to prevent the family from being separated and moved to different facilities.
Videos of the protest posted on social media Tuesday show law enforcement clashing with demonstrators outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office in Durango, where agents in tactical gear carried weapons that fire pepperballs. Video taken overnight shows one agent throwing an elderly woman’s phone and then throwing the woman to the ground, and other protesters appeared to have been hit with pepperballs.
In a statement, the city of Durango said the Colorado Bureau of Investigation and the FBI were both investigating the agent’s conduct.
Fernando Jaramillo Solano and his two children, ages 12 and 15, were detained by ICE on Monday morning while driving near their home, said Enrique Orozco-Perez, the co-executive director of the Compañeros Four Corners Immigrant Resource Center.
The family applied for asylum after coming to Colorado from Colombia and has an active, ongoing immigration case. The children’s mother, who is the primary applicant on the asylum case, has not been detained, the group said.
“ICE has blocked all the mother’s attempts to see her children, and is reportedly preparing to forcibly separate these minor children from their father and send them alone to Texas. This is not enforcement; it is a traumatic kidnapping of family members who are doing everything right and being punished for it,” Compañeros said in a statement.
Steve Kotecki, spokesman for ICE’s Denver field office, did not immediately return an email seeking comment. The protests echoed similar opposition that’s been mounted against ICE facilities in Chicago and Portland, where protesters have gathered outside of the agency’s offices and detention centers.
Orozco-Perez said in an interview that Solano was “violently” arrested Monday morning while taking his kids to school. He shouted to volunteers who’d arrived to observe the arrest that his children were in the car, and the kids were also handcuffed and detained.
In its statement, Durango officials said that ICE told local police that immigration agents tried to release the kids to another parent. Orozco-Perez said the children’s mother was afraid to come to the scene for fear of being arrested. Local police “then offered to facilitate the release of the children back to their mother, but were informed that it was no longer an option,” according to the city’s statement.
Volunteer legal aides from the group also came to the ICE field office, where the family was held, to provide documents about the family’s pending asylum case. ICE officials refused to accept the documents, Orozco-Perez said.
The police also attempted a welfare check on the children, one of whom “may have been in distress and potentially experiencing abuse,” the city said. But Durango officers were denied entry into the facility.
“In moments like these, our duty is not only to uphold the law, but to preserve our humanity,” said Police Chief Brice Current. “While we have a sworn responsibility not to interfere with federal operations, our department advocated for the children’s well-being.”
Protesters began to gather outside the facility shortly after the arrests Monday. When an attorney later arrived to again try to provide documents to ICE, legal aides were told by ICE that the family would be detained together, Orozco-Perez said.
But the children’s mother later told advocates that she’d spoken with one of her kids and that they had been told they would be transported to Texas while their father was moved to Colorado’s immigration detention center in Aurora. Protesters then set up an all-night vigil to try to prevent any vehicles from leaving.
That’s when one volunteer from Compañeros was shoved by an ICE agent, Orozco-Perez said. Video posted to Facebook by the group shows a masked agent grab a phone from a volunteer who’d held her camera close to the man’s face. The agent then throws the phone as the woman yelled for him to return it. He then grabbed the woman and threw her to the ground, the video shows.
In its statement, the city said it was cooperating with both a state and federal investigation into the incident.
The protests continued into Tuesday morning and afternoon. Law enforcement began handcuffing and pulling people sitting in front of the office’s gates. A group of Colorado State Patrol troopers were also present and appeared to be clearing the road so several SUVs could leave the building. Protesters threw objects and bottles of water at the SUVs, one of which grazed a protester standing in the roadway as it sped past them.
The video shows a masked agent in tactical gear unloading what appear to be pepper balls from close range on two people sitting in the roadway.
“What you saw was people defending our community with their bodies, trying to not allow ICE to leave,” Orozco-Perez said.
Sgt. Ivan Alvarado, spokesman for the state patrol, said the agency was at the protest to assist. In a subsequent statement, an unnamed agency spokesperson wrote it arrived “at the request of local enforcement.”
“The Patrol did not participate in any immigration enforcement action. Demonstrators were reported to have blocked the facility’s exit and bolted an access gate closed,” the spokesperson wrote. “The Patrol’s role was to aid in de-escalation and protection of all parties present, maintain the peace, and address any identified unlawful behavior. Members of the Colorado State Patrol did not use any weapons or chemical munitions.”
But Tom Sluis, spokesman for the city, said the state patrol offered assistance unprompted and that no one from the Durango Police Department called to request their help.
In a statement, Gov. Jared Polis said he was “deeply concerned” about the family’s detention.
“The federal government’s lack of transparency about its immigration actions in Durango and the free state of Colorado remains extremely maddening,” he wrote. “The federal government should prioritize apprehending and prosecuting dangerous criminals, no matter where they come from, and keep our communities safe instead of snatching up children and breaking up families.”
In a statement, Durango School District spokesperson Karla Sluis said the district could not confirm whether any students were involved in “immigration enforcement action” because of federal privacy laws.
“Our schools remain safe and welcoming places for every student who walks through our doors. By both state and federal law, every child is entitled to a public education regardless of background or circumstance, and the district does not collect or share information about immigration status,” Sluis said.
The Durango arrests come days after a Parker teacher and her family were detained during a routine check-in appointment in Centennial, despite having legal authorization to live and work in the United States.