Dozens of protesters gathered Monday outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office in Durango after reports spread that federal agents detained two minors and a parent on their way to school.
The minors are believed to be Durango School District students, and the adult is their parent, according to a representative from Compañeros: Four Corners Immigrant Resource Center, who asked not to be identified by name.
All three were taken to the ICE field office in Bodo Industrial Park.
The Compañeros official said she has worked with the family on an active asylum case since December 2024.
A work permit request was submitted in September and denied in early October. However, the Compañeros official received an email Monday from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services saying the denial was an error and the case remains active.
“They have a strong asylum case,” the Compañeros employee said. “(It meets) all the requirements and criteria (needed).”
The advocate said she showed the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services email to a field office employee and was told the family would be released if the case could be confirmed as active.
Community members, legal advocates and representatives from Compañeros and the immigrant rights group Apoyo began to gather around 8 a.m. Monday across the street from the ICE field office where the family was held.
By Monday afternoon, the number had grown to about 100 people. Durango Police Department patrolled the scene.
Several protesters said the children were brought to the Center in handcuffs.
“I’m here to support these people that are literally being kidnapped off our streets,” said community member and protester Lisa Owens. “I am absolutely appalled that they (detained) two young children on their way to school – which is where they belong – and that they have them in this ICE building. It breaks my heart what’s happening. ... They must be terrified – traumatized.”
Local family law attorney Angie Buchanan went to the Center to support the detained family.
Buchanan said an ICE official told her any request to speak with the children must go through a juvenile coordinator with ICE. But when she called the number provided, she was told no such office or position exists.
According to the National Immigration Forum, the Flores Settlement requires each ICE field office to have a juvenile coordinator – an expert on children and families – and a compliance officer to address issues.
A Denver-based attorney from Meyer Law Office is consulting with the family, according to an employee with the firm.
ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.
Raye, a member of the Southwest Rapid Response Network who requested their last name remain anonymous, said that while every ICE detainment comes with heavy feelings, the involvement of children has made this one feel especially difficult.
“This time it involves kids,” they said. “The cruelty of that is really apparent to our community.”
Community member and protester Natalia Anzola, who immigrated from Columbia in 1989, called the detainment of the children “the first step in erosion of public liberty.”
Anzola arrived to the protest around 9:30 a.m. Monday and remained as of 6 p.m., with no plans to leave.
She said she joined the protest to let the detained family and immigrant community know she stands with them.
“I just want them to know they’re not alone,” she said.
Enrique Orozco, co-executive director of Compañeros, told The Durango Herald that the children and their parent were still being held in the ICE field office in Durango as of Monday evening. Protesters intend to remain outside of the office until the children are released, he said – even if it takes all night.
“Part of the message is, if you believe in dignity and you believe in kids not (being) subject to this fascist administration, join us out there,” Orozco said. “We’re looking for people to be out there through the night with anything – coffee, hot chocolate, blankets, generators, noisemakers. We don’t want those kids to go to Denver.”
Orozco said the children’s mother is not being detained, and that ICE should release the minors to her.
epond@durangoherald.com
