Two more people were arrested by U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement in the Durango area on Thursday, according to Compañeros: Four Corners Immigrant Resource Center.
Compañeros posted an alert to social media on Thursday confirming two residents driving east from Durango to a construction site in Pagosa Springs were stopped and detained by ICE.
Compañeros Executive Director Enrique Orozco-Perez did not immediately respond to an email and a phone call from The Durango Herald seeking more information.
The arrests are the eighth and ninth reported encounters with ICE that resulted in detention in the Durango area.
On the morning of June 17, ICE pulled over two construction workers headed to work just west of Bayfield and detained them, Orozco-Perez said that day. One of the individuals lacked any kind of documentation and the other person had a tourism visa, according to volunteer rapid responders who talked to family members of the detainees.
Five other suspected undocumented immigrants were arrested at Rock Solid Custom Granite in Durango on May 14.
Manager Jake Morrow said then his workers appeared to have proper paperwork when he hired them, but ICE agents arrested the persons on the basis they lacked “proper documentation.”
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If you or someone you know has been impacted by the May 14, June 17 or June 26 U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests in Durango, you can share your experiences by emailing us at herald@durangoherald.com or, to remain anonymous, using our online tip form: www.durangoherald.com/input/new-news-tip/
Details about the arrests, including the names, ages, legal statuses and nationalities of those detained, have proved elusive.
Morrow said he would leave it to his workers’ families to decide whether to disclose the names of those who were arrested.
Orozco-Perez has declined to share the names of those arrested as well.
ICE has not acknowledged the Herald’s requests for more information about any of the arrests made in June.
ICE spokesman Steve Kotecki confirmed the arrests at Rock Solid Custom Granite, but he declined to release the names of the people detained, citing the agency’s privacy policy which restricts the release of information unless a name, date of birth or case number is provided.
Kotecki did not immediately respond to a phone call on Friday.
Orozco-Perez said earlier this year that President Donald Trump’s rhetoric about immigration and the federal government’s push to ramp up deportations has stirred fear and uncertainty among the immigrant community in La Plata County.
“I guarantee there’s kids missing from school today. I guarantee there’s people missing from work today,” he said following the five arrests at Rock Solid Custom Granite.
cburney@durangoherald.com
