Anger, fright and desperation set the mood for Durango City Council’s regular meeting Wednesday. Before the meeting had begun, anti-fed phrases were outlined in chalk on the public sidewalk outside City Hall.
“ICE is the New Gestapo” and “NO ICE, NO KKK, NO FASCIST, USA” were scrawled in blue, green and yellow chalk on the concrete in front of City Hall.
A cohort of residents at least 100 strong had assembled outside City Hall to protest U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and some to continue advocating for other city issues.
Nineteen public speakers urged the city to, at least, pass a resolution showing solidarity with immigrants, arguing without city leadership, immigrants’ voices will continue to go unheard, unrepresented and unprotected.
The subject of ICE’s unruly conduct in Durango, La Plata County and nationwide dominated the meeting.
Some residents asked Durango to institute a no-mask policy for law enforcement agents, similar to a California state law proposed by lawmakers in June. Others asked why ICE is permitted to jam traffic on Main Avenue in order to apprehend a suspect. And others asked for the city to post information about preparing for ICE raids on its website.
Resident Karen Pontius said one of the most recent arrests involved ICE running people off the road in Bayfield. She said ICE agents are “masked bounty-hunters” and “they’re endangering residents with their tactics.”
A Reddit user posted a link to a Go Fund Me on r/Durango on Wednesday and described the events leading to the detention of Martin Geobany “Geo” Terrazas on Tuesday.
The Reddit user, “Ffsgetout,” who did not reply to a request from The Durango Herald for more information, said in the post that Terrazas was traveling in his truck with a coworker down a “quiet dirt road” to work when they were forced off the road by unmarked ICE vehicles.
“In those terrifying moments, Terrazas managed to place a frantic 28-second call to his wife, Liz. She heard him say, ‘ICE is grabbing me up’ followed by a shuffling noise … and then the line went dead,” the user said.
Terrazas’ wife traced his pinned location to find the truck halfway in a ditch with the windows rolled down and the keys resting on the dashboard.
“Desperate, family and friends gathered outside the immigration office, only to be met with silence and locked doors. Finally, after an agonizing day of uncertainty, Geo was able to call. He confirmed he had been taken and is now being held in Denver,” the user said.
The Reddit user described Terrazas, who has lived in Bayfield since he was 8 years old, as a “loving husband, devoted father, and one of the hardest-working men you’ll ever meet” and whose family and entire life reside in the United States.
Enrique Orozco-Perez, co-director of Compañeros: Four Corners Immigrant Resource Center, said confirmed the Bayfield arrest, but he could not confirm specific details, being unfamiliar with what exactly occurred.
Resident Gianna Bandy Gomar said at the City Council meeting she moved to the United States from Mexico in 2001 when she was 12 years old, and walking outside to stargaze at night – a luxury not afforded to her as a child in Mexico City for safety reasons – made Durango feel like a safe place.
“It was a space where I felt a community. It was a space where I felt supported and cared for,” she said.
Nowadays, she said, she works for a youth-serving organization and sees the children there are too terrified to go to school, fearing their parents won’t be home upon return.
“This is a federal issue, but what you can do is take a stance,” she said. “That’s what everyone here is asking you all to do, take a stance, do something about this, because united, we’re much, much stronger.”
Public comment after comment, residents explained how unchecked detention and deportation of immigrant community members, families, friends and workers is not above nor beneath the duties of elected city officials.
Shortly into the public comments, the first of which elicited applause from attendees, Mayor Gilda Yazzie slammed her gavel and demanded silence. She threatened the crowd with a procedural “out of order,” and a threat of recess, should attendees clap again.
After another round of applause, Yazzie stayed true to her promise, called the meeting out of order and initiated a five-minute recess. While Yazzie exited the Smith Council Chambers into a hallway and disappeared around the corner, other councilors left their chairs on the dais and engaged residents in the chambers and the foyer.
“I wanted order, and I already had told them that if they’re going to shout and scream after everybody and clap, that I was going to call it recess and let them calm down. It’s kind of like a timeout. And I think they got that after a while, because after the rest of the evening, there was only a few people who tried to disrupt the public hearing,” Yazzie said in an interview.
When asked why Yazzie didn’t call the meeting out of order when attendees and staff applauded City Manager José Madrigal when he was awarded a plaque at the beginning of the meeting for being named a top 10 city manager in the U.S. in 2025, Yazzie said that process didn’t involve any public participation.
Councilor Jessika Buell proposed a revised resolution reaffirming “the city’s commitment to every member of the Durango community,” which she prefaced describing a meeting between immigrants advocates the previous day.
The proposed resolution would also reaffirm and assure city police can do their “jobs effectively while upholding the city’s values,” she said.
In interviews with the Herald, councilors and Madrigal said retaliation from the federal government – such as the withholding of federal dollars – should the city make too tall a stand against immigration enforcement is a real concern.
“There’s fears throughout the country that funding can be slashed if we take positions that don’t abide by the current federal administration,” Yazzie said.
Councilor Shirley Gonzales said the city doesn’t have the authority to abolish ICE or prevent immigration officers from restraining or detaining people, but it can ask law enforcement officers to identify themselves and inform residents about judicial warrants and probable cause.
“There are things we can do as a city, and many of them were mentioned last night, including education campaigns, educational awareness, telling people where the (rapid response) hotline is, informing people of their rights,” she said.
cburney@durangoherald.com
