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!”

#CentennialCO #CO #AuroraCO #ImmigrantRights #ICE #Featured

Centennial, CO – On January 14, the Denver Aurora Community Action Committee (DACAC) and 16 community members braved the cold to rally in opposition to police crimes outside of the office of the district attorney for the 18th Judicial District.

It was the inaugural day for new District Attorney Amy Padden, the democrat sworn in as head prosecutor for the 18th Judicial District. Before January, the 18th District covered Arapahoe, Douglas, Elbert and Lincoln Counties, but it has been redrawn to cover Arapahoe County exclusively. The district covers a significant portion of Aurora, as well as part of the rural eastern plains of Colorado.

LaRonda Jones, the mother of Kilyn Lewis, a 37-year-old Black man who was shot and killed while he was unarmed by Aurora police officer Michael Dieck, was in attendance. Jones told the crowd, ”How can we trust a badge that has become a weapon against us? Because of what happened to my son and other family members' children, the badge is no longer a symbol of protection. It's a symbol of danger, of fatality, of loss. This isn't about a few bad apples. It's about a diseased tree, a system that allows this kind of harm to continue without interruption – a system that turns its back on accountability.”

Anna Harris spoke next and contrasted how the police have treated white mass shooters with the killing of her partner Kory Dillard, a 38-year-old Black veteran who was killed by Aurora Police early last October during a mental health crisis. Harris stated, “Our city has had four mass shootings, and in every tragedy, officers were able to demonstrate their ability to detain a dangerous suspect, not only swiftly, but alive.”

Padden’s predecessor, former DA John Kellner, had a troubling history of protecting violent police and prosecuting victims of police violence as well as those who simply exercised their rights under the law. The people present at the rally are cautiously hopeful that DA Padden will discontinue the policies of John Kellner.

Concluding the action was a reading of a letter to the new district attorney. Jeff McFarland, a member of DACAC, put forward a number of demands to address police crimes, then the crowd chanted, “All power to the people!”

#CentennialCO #CO #InJusticeSystem #DCAC