Durango City Council has twice refused to hold a public meeting to explore ways the city can better support immigrants and evaluate appropriate interactions between local police and federal officers.
The council’s latest refusal occurred at a regular meeting on Tuesday, when they shot down Councilor Shirley Gonzales’ request for a study session about local police interactions with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
Councilor Jessika Buell instead proposed a conversation about forming a task force to explore immigration issues outside of the public eye, which she asked to be placed on the next regular meeting agenda.
The task force, she suggested, would work in the background on “specific actionable” ideas about how the city can support its immigrants.
“Instead of a large, public study session, I would like to suggest we form a smaller, more discrete task force or working group,” Buell said.
She said the group could be comprised of council members, leaders from organizations and members of the city’s Community and Cultural Relations Committee.
“I think the days of staying quiet are gone – long gone,” Gonzales said, adding she wants to hear from city officials publicly.
In an interview, Gonzales said forming a task force just delays the issue.
“I’m a little speechless,” she said.
She said her request was pretty basic: hold a public meeting between councilors, the city attorney and the chief of police to discuss what actions the city can legally take to support its immigrant community.
“In addition to just a moral obligation to respond to our constituents, it’s really important that we as a council and we as a community know the laws,” she said. “Because it’s been so vague. What actually are the laws and what can law enforcement do?”
At another meeting earlier this month, in response to an outcry for action from residents, Buell suggested a resolution restating the city’s “Commitment to Everyone in the Community and our Community Well-Being.”
Gonzales said she welcomes such a statement.
City Council will consider the resolution, a reaffirmation of 2004 and 2015 resolutions passed by previous councils, at its next regular meeting.
Despite those resolutions having been on the books for decades, some residents said they do not feel like the city is doing the most it can for some of its most vulnerable community members.
At a Sept. 3 City Council meeting – where residents packed council chambers – 19 public speakers asked for a range of actions to be taken.
Some asked for a resolution stating support for immigrants, much like the one proposed by Buell. Others asked for immigrant resources, information about how to “deter” ICE raids, and information about constitutional rights to be made available on the city’s website.
Attendees demanded Durango Police Department refrain from assisting ICE.
Durango police maintains it never aided immigration officers
Durango Police Department Chief Brice Current said his agency did not aid federal immigration officials in August when eyewitnesses claimed they saw officers stop traffic to clear a path for ICE and pulled over immigration advocates who were tailing ICE.
“We don’t want these types of incidents to be spun where it distorts trust, because our main goal is to make sure everyone’s safe – everyone that comes into town, everyone that visits town, everyone regardless of their immigration status,” Current told The Durango Herald.
DPD released body camera footage of Cunningham’s interactions with ICE agents on Main Avenue in a response to the Herald’s original report of the incidents.
Resident Carolyne Hunter asked the city to pass a law requiring law enforcement – including immigration officers – to show their faces and badges and to state their names when performing official duties within the city.
Enrique Orozco-Perez, co-executive director of Compañeros: Four Corners Immigrant Resource Center, said he received an email from Mayor Gilda Yazzie saying the community’s immigration concerns are unrelated to city business – and he lambasted the notion.
“That statement really reflected a deep lack of empathy and care for part of our community that lives and contributes everyday to Durango,” he said. “And let’s be clear: when you say this isn’t really a city matter, you’re really saying that part of our community is not part of a city, and that’s erasure. This is clearly a city matter.”
Immigrant workers and school children being too afraid to go to work and school, and families being intimidated and torn apart by ICE agents “lurking” around their neighborhoods impact businesses, the economy and the community at large, placing the matter squarely within city business, he said.
He said silence in the face of authoritarianism, “and even fascism,” is complicity.
“We have seen ICE circle our courthouses, detain community members blocks away without a warrant. We have seen people stopped and detained under false pretenses of ‘probable cause,’ which let’s be real, all that means is racial profiling,” he said.
Attendees began to give Orozco-Perez an ovation, but were cut short by Yazzie, who promptly called the meeting out of order and paused the meeting for 10 minutes – a “timeout” after warning audience members not to clap for speakers for the sake of moving the meeting along.
Five-year Durango resident Chris Cottrell, who lived in Germany for over a decade and studied its history extensively, alluded to Nazi Germany when he said, “I assure you that this is only the beginning. Fascism is kind of famous for not going away on its own.”
To hear city leaders and law enforcement say there is nothing they can do about illegal actions by ICE is “unacceptable,” he said.
On Tuesday, he asked City Council to pass a resolution and approve a study session on immigration.
He also noted Wednesday marked the 238th anniversary of the signing of the U.S. Constitution, and that City Council issued a proclamation earlier in the meeting acknowledging Constitution Week.
“What better way to mark and celebrate that notable date than to do everything in your power to uphold and protect the ethos and the rights provided in that document,” he said.
What was perhaps the most personal comment made to councilors came from a young immigrant woman who said her neighbors, friends, family and herself have already been targeted by ICE.
Pausing occasionally to stifle her tears, resident Carolina Gomez said she is an immigrant and a resident who has worked in human services for eight years. When her brother was arrested and deported by ICE, his four children were left behind.
“I understand the consequences and the risk I am taking as I am standing here before you and telling you all that I am an immigrant, and being in this town and being even more vulnerable than I already am. But I am proud to be an immigrant and I am proud to live in the city of Durango,” she said. “I have fostered such a beautiful community and life here and the idea of having that ripped away from me with no due process, with no criminal record at all, and me serving this community faithfully for eight years, is absolutely horrifying.”
Almost breaking down in tears, she caught herself.
“And let alone so beyond disrespectful,” she added.
She asked City Council to look out for the city’s residents and to declare Durango a sanctuary city.
cburney@durangoherald.com
