It’s up to Durango residents to push back against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement amid a surge of arrests nationally and across La Plata County, said Hans Meyer of The Meyer Law Office, P.C., in Denver, an immigration defense and public policy advocacy firm.
That entails citizens standing in solidarity with immigrants and pressuring local and state elected officials to recommit to policies that keep federal immigration enforcement separate from local policing, he said.
Meyer said ICE has gone off the rails and is violating people’s constitutional rights in order to make as many arrests as it can. Although de facto racial profiling and violent arrests by federal agents are becoming increasingly more common, Colorado and municipalities don’t have to play the feds’ game.
He said state law prohibits law enforcement from aiding federal immigration officers, but to immigrants fearful for their and their families’ safety, the distinction between police and ICE has become blurred.
That’s bad for public safety, he said. Immigrants should feel safe reporting crimes to law enforcement, and ICE’s behavior deters them from doing so.
“There’s a bleeding in perception and in functionality between local law enforcement and feds. People don’t trust anybody, right? That makes communities less safe,” Meyer said. “That’s one of the primary drivers of passing the state legislation, which is, ‘Look ICE, you’re going to do your JV immigration enforcement, do it. But the varsity team is going to be respecting state law, respecting people’s rights and keeping community safe.’”
DPD and La Plata County have held the stance that they do not cooperate with ICE on civil immigration matters, while acknowledging ICE does have federal authority to carry out immigration enforcement.
At a community meeting last month, La Plata County Sheriff Sean Smith told residents to familiarize themselves with their rights and to record ICE activities, but also to be careful lest they risk obstruction of justice charges for interfering with agents.
A question repeated by residents at community immigration meetings is at what point local law enforcement should intervene with ICE activity. Meyer said the answer is complicated, and it requires local authorities – the sheriff, the chief of police, district attorneys and other elected officials – identifying what constitutes a violation of state law.
The matter is undeniably complicated, with issues of constitutional supremacy weighed against upholding state and local laws, he said.
“As a starting point, it’s important to delineate the policy that they’re not going to cooperate in that type of thuggery,” he said.
Durango City Councilor Shirley Gonzales attempted to start a public conversation about immigration last month when she proposed a study session on the subject, but her request for a public meeting went unacknowledged by her colleagues on the dais.
In addition to keeping public officials committed to strong immigration policies, Meyer said residents need to engage each other by joining local community organizations that perform rapid response to ICE activity.
“Impunity thrives when there’s no supervision and there’s no accountability,” he said.
Responding to and documenting ICE activity now creates a record of lawlessness that can be addressed legally in the future, he said.
Meyer traveled to Durango this week to meet with business owners and community members for immigrant rights training. He said the strong turnout at a community meeting on Tuesday inspires hope at a time the United States is sliding into authoritarianism.
He added that this isn’t the first time conflict between Colorado communities and federal immigration officials has occurred, noting the state laws in place today.
“We have already had this fight. This community already showed up. In fact, it showed up faster and sooner than Denver, Boulder and other places,” he said. “... Durango really showed up for his community and said, ‘Yeah, it doesn’t work for Durango. We’re a town that cares about his residents, and ICE might do what it does, but we’re not going to be a part of that because it undermines our community.’”
cburney@durangoherald.com
