More than 70 people turned out to Buckley Park in Durango on Friday afternoon to protest the targeting and deportation of immigrants by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and the Trump administration.
The event, hosted by Southwest Colorado Alliance, was called “La Marcha de la Puebla” and was held in solidarity with immigrants to the United States. It was held in conjunction with other protests elsewhere around the country.
Activists marched down the sidewalks of Main Avenue before circling back to the park. They carried signs that read, “Immigrants R Heroes Not Villains Like ICE,” “ (I.C.E.) Trump’s Gestapo” and “Rage! Against! The! Regime,” the last phrase being a reference to another protest scheduled for Saturday afternoon at 17th Street and Main Avenue.
One protester said an ICE agent was seen parked in an unmarked vehicle near the park shortly before the event. The Durango Herald was unable to verify whether immigration officials were on site.
“The immigrant community doesn’t feel safe coming out here today with us, (so we’re) making a statement of love and solidarity for them,” said Nathan Coe, event organizer. “For the most part, they’re not here. They’re terrified. People aren’t going to work, people aren’t going to court dates, people aren’t going to school.”
Hecklers on Main Avenue taunted the protesters. At least twice, drivers aggressively revved their engines as they went down the street.
One man riding a bicycle shouted, “Let’s go Brandon” – a euphemism for “(expletive) Joe Biden” – as he passed. Another man, a passenger in a vehicle driving by, yelled out “Deport them all.”
The shouts turned a few protesters’ heads but drew no retort.
Others driving by slowed down and rapidly honked their horns in support.
Before the march, Coe had told protesters not to engage with hecklers.
“We won’t give them what they want,” he said.
Protesters had mixed opinions about whether a solution to the United States’ dysfunctional immigration system – as described by The Heritage Foundation, the Cato Institute, the American Immigration Council and politicians and organizations across the U.S. political spectrum – is within reach.
Protesters also had different views of the trajectory of national U.S. politics.
Durango resident John Redemske said the American peoples’ discontent is already brewing, but it hasn’t yet reached a fever pitch.
“I’m optimistic that things can change. Pain has to hit hard the American public, and it’s already starting to hit hard,” he said. “The American public doesn’t really know what they had until it’s gone. It’s gone, and there’ll be a lag time before they realize what actually happened.”
Protesters said they were angry about arrests and detentions of immigrants and, in some cases, American citizens, around the country by masked, unidentified federal agents.
“People getting kidnapped off the streets by masked people is just unacceptable. Shouldn’t be happening in this country, no matter who it is,” said Darren, a Durango man who declined to share his last name to keep his 15-year-old daughter’s last name private.
Darren said he immigrated to the United States from Australia decades ago and he’s always been conscious that the process was likely easier for him because he is white.
A lot of ire at the protest on Saturday was targeted at the Trump administration and federal agencies. But Izzy, Darren’s daughter, said the Democratic Party is also failing to support humane policies for immigrants.
“The Democratic Party is not doing what they should right now,” she said.
She said Democrats are largely neutral on the topic of immigration when they should be pushing policies that provide immigrants access to health care, child care and food.
Resident Erinn Morgan said she wants to see an improved pathway temporary legal status and eventual citizenship for immigrants.
“If you are a murderer, fine,” she said, suggesting deportations are appropriate under some circumstances. “... But for folks that are just here illegally, it’s important to have a pathway for education and toward citizenship.”
She said many immigrants have put in time and work without committing crimes, are invested in their communities and should have a viable means to pursue citizenship.
But, she said, she doesn’t see the U.S. Congress reaching a consensus on how to lessen the burden on immigrants pursuing citizenship – or resolving immigration enforcement controversies – any time soon.
cburney@durangoherald.com
