Durango City Councilor Jessika Buell urged swift action Tuesday to form an immigration task force after federal agents arrested a Colombian family seeking asylum and deployed pepper spray and less-lethal munitions on protesters.
Councilors unanimously approved the task force, which will explore legal, actionable ways the city can support Durango’s immigrant community amid increased immigration enforcement.
“Passing this resolution tonight to create an immigration task force is not just a bureaucratic step – it is the most urgent and important action we can take right now to begin healing and create tangible, local protections,” Buell said.
She said the events that transpired last week were traumatizing, leaving residents feeling “angry, unsafe and helpless” and she wished City Council had created a task force “a long time ago.”
U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement arrested Fernando Jaramillo Solano and his two children – Kewin Daniel Patiño Bustamante, 15, and Jana Michel Jaramillo Patiño, 12 – on their way to school the morning of Oct. 27.
When word spread, residents gathered outside an ICE field office in Bodo Industrial Park. Protesters formed a human chain, locked entrance gates for vehicles and vowed to block agents from leaving with the children.
Colorado State Patrol troopers and ICE agents, joined by U.S. Department of Homeland Security agents, arrived midday Tuesday. The federal agents used pepper spray and rubber bullets to clear protesters. Some agents dragged protesters away from the entrance gate so ICE vehicles could leave with the family, who were then taken to a Texas detention facility, according to advocates in contact with the family.
Buell first proposed forming a task force at a Sept. 16 meeting based on recommendations from groups working with immigrant families.
Recommendations for the task force include having representatives from organizations such as Compañeros: Four Corners Immigrant Resource Center and the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition, and relying on a skilled facilitator to guide complex conversations.
Buell supported those ideas. She said the task force must be built on mutual respect and include participation from community leaders, the city and the Durango Police Department.
The city’s Community and Cultural Relations Commission, appointed by City Council, has been charged with forming the task force and designing its processes.
Councilor Kip Koso said he welcomes a representative from Compañeros on the immigration task force – but not its executive director, Enrique Orozco-Perez.
He said Orozco-Perez “relentlessly uses derogatory terms for our police officers, repeatedly cusses out city councilors trying to talk with him and belittles anyone opposed to his specific viewpoint,” adding he “does not have the self-control made up of a deliberative body made up of citizens looking to solve an issue.”
Koso said Orozco-Perez sowed division when the community needed a unified response to ICE’s tactics. The task force, he added, should include members committed to consensus-building.
At a special meeting last week, Police Chief Brice Current debriefed councilors on the department’s response to the protests and ICE’s reaction. After the meeting, residents – including Orozco-Perez – criticized DPD and accused officers of complicity.
A gathering after the meeting in front of City Hall culminated with residents chanting “serve and protect” at officers.
Orozco-Perez told The Durango Herald that Koso approached him and raised his voice.
“It was the crowd expressing their pain and outrage to the police. I was not yelling at him,” he said.
He said last week’s detention of the children is part of a long history in the U.S. “where Black, Indigenous and immigrant children of color are treated as less worthy of safety, innocence or protection.”
“And when our communities respond in grief or anger, we are told emotions are the problem, rather than the harm that caused them,” he said.
He said the movement is not about him, and the voices behind it will not be silenced.
Residents made three common requests to City Council during public comments Tuesday:
- That City Council include members of Compañeros and the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition on the task force, calling their involvement essential.
- That the city waive parking tickets and similar citations issued to protesters last week outside the ICE field office.
- That the city conduct its own investigation into ICE and HSI actions from Oct. 27 through Oct. 29.
Last week, Current asked the Colorado Bureau of Investigation and FBI to investigate an ICE agent who appears in videos to drag a protester and throw her down a grassy hill early Oct. 28.
CBI has agreed to investigate and will turn over its findings to the 6th Judicial District Attorney’s Office.
Local attorney Hillary Bernhardt urged the city to require DPD to release all footage of its interactions with state troopers and federal agents, and to review zoning compliance at the ICE field office.
Chris Cottrell and other residents commended City Council for listening to residents’ concerns, but suggested councilors show more patience with residents expressing their anger and pain.
They said all involved need to work together and direct their frustrations on finding solutions.
cburney@durangoherald.com
