4 arrested during immigrant rights protest at ICE field office in Colorado
Centennial, CO – At 8 a.m. on Monday, July 20, organizers and community members from across the Denver Metro area joined together for a protest at the ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Denver Field Office in Centennial, Colorado.
The protesters come together for a die-in scheduled by the Shut Down GEO Coalition to highlight detained immigrants' demands for freedom, humane conditions, and to end all contracts with GEO Group, the operators of a for-profit detention facility in Aurora, Colorado. GEO Group was also recently awarded over $528 million dollars to open up a shuttered correctional facility in Hudson, Colorado.
The rally began with speeches from organizers and family members of immigrants who have been impacted by the racist and brutal deportation system. Speakers touched on the longstanding history of medical neglect, insufficient and unsafe food, low wages, guard and staff abuse, and, most recently, a confirmed case of tuberculosis within the Aurora GEO facility.
Despite pressure from medical professionals, legal advocates and the local community, the GEO Group has still not met the demand for compliance from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment for contact tracing and a full health investigation. While GEO Group delays crucial investigations and treatment, they could ultimately be subjecting the entire city and state to unnecessary health risks.
After the speeches, protesters staged a die-in where they laid down on the ground in front of the ERO office, representing the lives stolen by ICE and private prison contractors GEO Group and CoreCivic.
While attendees were lying on the ground, listening to recordings of testimonials from families of those in detention, a group of protesters stood off to the side holding a large banner that read, “Dignity not detention, end deportations.”
Five Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officers approached this group of organizers and called in additional officers for back up. Eventually, two officers returned to attempt to pull the banner away from protesters but failed. When the DHS officers were unsuccessful in threatening protesters to retreat, they called in the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office, which brought less-lethal crowd control weapons.
Arapahoe County sheriffs pushed the group of protesters forward and into the public street, where they eventually targeted four protesters who were then pulled from the group, handcuffed, and detained for around two hours within the ICE facility under Arapahoe County and ICE supervision before being released with state and federal citations.
Upon the protesters’ exit, the remaining crowd was chanting for each organizer's release. The organizers arrested included longtime organizers in the community Arnie Carter and Terry Burnsed, as well as Yoselin Corrales, an immigrant rights organizer with Aurora Unidos CSO.
After taking a moment to regroup, Corrales addressed the crowd, stating, “It’s far past the time to send a strongly-worded email, we need to show up and be willing to put more on the line for those facing injustice in our community!”