This story was first published on ColoradoNewsline.com.
DENVER | For the second day in a row, Coloradans protested against the mass deportation campaign being carried out by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents across the country and an escalating military crackdown by President Donald Trump’s administration on anti-ICE demonstrators in Los Angeles.
A crowd of more than 1,000 people Tuesday evening gathered on the lawn of the Colorado Capitol and along Lincoln Street near Civic Center Park in Denver for an emergency “ICE Out” rally organized by the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition and the Party for Socialism and Liberation.
“This is more than a protest. It’s a call to defend our future,” Raquel Lane-Arellano, communications manager for the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition, said in a press release. “The Trump administration is trying to turn our government into a weapon—unleashing the military on immigrants, workers, and anyone who won’t bow to their agenda.”
A breakaway crowd of hundreds, mostly younger people, then marched south from the Capitol, shutting down traffic on Broadway and Lincoln Street. The marchers were met by a line of law enforcement officers including Denver police and Colorado State Patrol near the interchange between Broadway and Interstate 25. The crowd gradually thinned out as police warned demonstrators they would be denied access to the highway. Officers in riot gear deployed chemical munitions to disperse the crowd after a standoff lasting about 30 minutes.
Other protesters remained at the Capitol throughout Tuesday evening’s demonstration.
“We are here right now because our neighbors are being attacked left and right,” Nayda Benitez, an advocate with CIRC, told the crowd. “I’m a proud immigrant. I could not be here without my mom, without my family.”
A Denver Police Department spokesperson told Newsline as of 9 p.m. Tuesday that she was not aware of any protest-related arrests.
Anti-ICE protests continued for the fifth consecutive day in Los Angeles, where Mayor Karen Bass on Tuesday night announced the imposition of an 8 p.m. curfew. Trump has ordered a detachment of 700 U.S. Marines and thousands of federalized National Guard troops to deploy to L.A. over the objections of state and local leaders, the first such move by a U.S. president since 1965. California Gov. Gavin Newsom has sued to block the deployments, which he said “crossed a red line.” Trump on Monday suggested Newsom, whom he did not accuse of any crime, should be arrested.
The Denver demonstrations followed a march on Monday to the gates of the ICE detention center in Aurora, where a daily average of more than 1,100 people are detained as they await deportation or other immigration proceedings.
Shortly after 6 p.m., as the size of the crowd at the Capitol swelled, a breakaway group chanting and bearing signs with anti-ICE slogans blocked an intersection at Lincoln and 14th streets.
Much of the crowd then marched south from the Capitol along Lincoln Street before crossing to Broadway. As the crowd marched, Denver police continued to shut down multiple intersections nearby but did not engage protesters or order them to disperse.
“No fear, no hate, no ICE in our state,” the crowd chanted. Despite causing traffic to back up in several locations, they were met largely with supportive honks and cheers from drivers.
“Come back for music afterward, people,” a proprietor at a bar and lounge on Broadway shouted to the crowd as it passed.
Javier Calzada, a demonstrator wielding a flagpole that flew both the Mexican and American flags, told Newsline he had immigrated from Mexico 27 years ago, and was on the scene Tuesday to “keep the peace.”
“We don’t support the attacks on our community,” Calzada said. “We’re here to protect ourselves.”
Many marchers began to turned back as the demonstration crossed Alameda Avenue. A smaller crowd continued south on Broadway until participants were stopped by law enforcement officers in tactical gear north of the I-25 interchange, where police broadcast a public-address announcement warning protesters to turn back from the highway and threatening the use of “chemical munitions.”
About 30 minutes later, a Denver police officer, citing the protest’s blocking of a roadway, ordered the crowd to disperse. Shortly afterwards, police deployed several canisters of chemical munitions into the crowd, and eventually fired several volleys of chemical rounds from pepper ball guns. The last remnants of the crowd departed as police advanced north on Broadway just before 8:30 p.m.
In an advisory issued just after 9 p.m., the Colorado State Patrol warned drivers to avoid downtown Denver because of “large crowds and possible unlawful road closures.”
Tensions have risen in Denver, L.A. and other cities around the country in recent weeks following a series of moves by the Trump administration to expand its mass deportation efforts. In his second term, Trump has vowed to deport all of the estimated 12.2 million people living in the country without permanent legal status.
ICE agents have begun arresting individuals and families outside federal immigration courts, reversing a longstanding policy that avoided such arrests so as not to deter immigrants from going through lawful court proceedings. A series of high-profile raids at restaurants and other workplaces have followed in the wake of Trump adviser Stephen Miller reportedly pressuring the agency to broaden the scope of its enforcement operations.
“Why aren’t you at Home Depot? Why aren’t you at 7-Eleven?” Miller asked ICE leaders on May 20, according to the Washington Examiner.
The Trump administration on Saturday spuriously described recent ICE operations in L.A. as targeting “the worst of the worst,” a claim belied by the agency’s raids of a downtown clothing wholesaler and a Home Depot in an L.A. suburb, both of which drew protests and led to the initial clashes between demonstrators and law enforcement this weekend. Federal agents in tactical gear shot tear gas and flash-bang grenades and arrested dozens of protesters they accused of obstructing the operations, including union leader David Huerta, who was charged by federal prosecutors Monday with a felony count of conspiracy to impede an officer.
The share of people in ICE detention with no criminal record had risen to nearly 25% as of June 1, a sharp uptick from 6% in January, according to the American Immigration Council.
“the Party for Socialism and Liberation.”
aka, marxists funded by the CCP. Sounds like these people and CIRC need to be rounded up for seditious conspiracy.
Funny how these people only want to follow laws that they agree with. This BS starts at the top. The mayor has destroyed Denver
“The Trump administration on Saturday spuriously described recent ICE operations in L.A. as targeting “the worst of the worst,” a claim belied by the agency’s raids of a downtown clothing wholesaler and a Home Depot in an L.A. suburb, both of which drew protests and led to the initial clashes between demonstrators and law enforcement this weekend.”
LOL, funny how Karen Bass’s deliberate lie became the journoscum consensus. Even the mayor of Paramount said that wasn’t the case.
Although I heartily support the right of the police to end unlawful protests, I would suggest that we consider the limitations imposed by our extremely liberal legislature and governor. The really bad SB217 bill that the legislature passed after George Floyd drove thousands of officers out of law enforcement and left all of us less safe and dodge balls in traffic. Part of the vague bill limited police use of force (everything is a use of force according to the bill) to three situations. Those were to make an arrest, protection, and to prevent an escape. There is no provision for use of force of any type to move a crowd. Tear gas, pepper spray, batons, or simply pushing are not allowed by law. The police can only arrest or basically defend themselves. They cannot move a crowd away from your business before they destroy it. They can only arrest, even though they are greatly outnumbered. I realize, after many years in law enforcement that law enforcement has learned virtually nothing from years of using the same tactics. Generally, those in charge, know little about use of force and are not innovative in any sense when it comes to strategy or tactics. They will stick to the same things that got them sued and did not work, no matter what. they are terrified to try commonsense approaches to moving rioters. They do not understand the psychology of the crowd and how to disperse them with minimal force. Beyond that, when force is actually necessary, it cannot be minimal or proportionate force as the legislature deems appropriate. You cannot use pushing against a crowd that is pushing you. The force has to be greater. I am not saying excessive. The police should be able to jab you in the ribs with a baton to move you back when you are pushing them. If you try to grab them or hit them, they should be allowed to hit you with a baton.
But, back to the tactics being used. First, tear gas is indiscriminate and usually not very effective against the ones you are really concerned about. So, you get sued by the ones who were just standing there. Denver is still paying off all of the legal suits for their use of gas and less lethal projectiles during the George Floyd riots. So, now they are using the same tactics all over again. Since those tactics are now illegal in Colorado, there is room for concern.
So what should be done? First, all of the chefs, sheriffs, and police unions should have protested constantly about the passage of SB217. The legislature should have been forced to look at all of the absurdities in their bill. They crippled law enforcement and left everyone in a bizarre situation where the police were afraid to do their jobs. So, our police politicians kept their mouths shut when the public was at risk. These are the same people who failed to train officers and failed to supervise them in an ethical way that prevented excessive force. SB217 needs to be repealed.
Next, the police need to get a better understanding of use of force. There are ways to affect the crowd psychologically and to get them moving with virtually no force. The tactics must also show the aggressive criminal ones that they can’t get away. Moving your silly slow formation down the street does not keep them from throwing things and looting ahead of you. In addition, any real police department will have a working plan for how to protect all of the city from random looting.
Usually, after mass demonstrations, there is a critique where they say lessons learned. What we learn is that they learn nothing from the same tired tactics.