Rep. Crow: Buckley Base won’t be used to house immigrants for deportation

AURORA | Following growing speculation and conflicting reports regarding the use of Buckley Space Force Base in upcoming federal immigration enforcement operations, Rep. Jason Crow said Monday he has confirmed that the base will not be used to detain immigrants during mass deportation efforts.

“I have been told that it will not be used to house immigrants and detainees,” Crow said. “It will only be used as a staging location for law enforcement and a coordination center for ongoing operations.”

Denver region Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said they did not immediately have a statement.

Crow, a Democrat who represents one of the most diverse congressional districts in the nation, said he will continue his ongoing oversight of Homeland Security and the Department of Defense to ensure the mission of Buckley remains aligned with national security interests and not political agendas.

Crow did not address leaked rumors from last week insisting that Trump administration agencies were imminently ready to descend on Aurora for some type of mass immigrant round-up or raids.

During the presidential campaign, Trump claimed that Aurora was overrun by a criminal gang from Venezuela and used the rhetoric to drive home his plan for mass deportation. He named his mass deportation plan, “Operation Aurora.” Aurora officials said Trump’s statements were overblown.

Despite saying he felt reassured about what the real mission for Buckley would be in Trump’s mass deportation plans, Crow said he remains concerned about a lack of transparency in how federal immigration enforcement is being planned and executed. 

“A mass deportation is different by definition,” Crow said. “The word ‘mass’ means they’re going after a larger category of folks, otherwise law-abiding people. These are our business owners. These are families. These are mixed-status families in many cases.”

Crow pointed to Trump administration Border Czar Tom Homan saying on multiple occasions that even parents of mixed-status families, including those with children receiving medical care, could face detention.

“Let’s not be fooled about what the President and the administration is talking about doing,” Crow said. “Nobody I know has any problem with enforcing against violent criminals to keep our communities safe. But using our military to do something that is, in my view, immoral and counterproductive to actual comprehensive immigration reform will gut our economy and remove a significant portion of our workforce. That’s not what Americans signed up for.”

News last week ut possibly holding arrested immigrants at Buckley angered immigrant rights groups in the region.

“The Administration’s announcement it will utilize Buckley (Spaceforce) Base is an affront to our Constitution and an insult to the commitment service members have made to protect it,” Colorado Rapid Response Network said in a statement last week.

The project will “enable U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to stage and process criminal aliens within the U.S. for an operation taking place in Colorado,” according to a statement issued by Buckley officials. “Military personnel are not involved in this operation.

As a combat veteran and former veterans advocate, Crow said he is concerned about misuse of the military by the Trump administration and the impact of law enforcement operations on troop morale and recruitment.

“I’ve heard anecdotally from various service members,” Crow said. “Folks are very worried about the politicization of the military. What that means for the separation between politics and the military, but also what that means for the morale of our troops.”

Buckley is a tier-one national security facility handling critical intelligence and missile warning operations, and any diversion of resources could jeopardize military readiness, Crow said.

“This is a facility that does no-fail missions for our national security,” Crow said. “Our troops around the world rely on what happens behind this fence line. Americans rely on what happens behind this fence line.”

Crow said he is committed to returning to Buckley for regular reviews and check-ins to ensure federal immigration operations remain lawful and ethical.

“We will make sure our service members and military are being used properly and that no unlawful activities occur,” Crow said. “The best thing to do when there are reports and rumors in a community is just to show up, start poking around, and get information for yourself.”

Worry about imminent raids in and near Aurora

News about Buckley coming off the block as a site for detaining or transporting people arrested for immigration law or other offenses followed a chaotic last week rife with rumors about imminent raids.

After earlier reporting that Aurora was expected to be a target for an immigration operation Jan. 30, NBC News and other media outlets reported that the effort has been postponed by federal officials because of media leaks.

Requests by the Sentinel for clarification from three federal agencies were unanswered or declined last week.

“The agency temporarily called off the operation due to media leaks, NBC reported, citing two sources familiar with the planning,” NBC News reported online Wednesday. “One of the sources told NBC that the leaks posed an operational security risk for officers.”

Officials with Gov. Jared Polis’ office told the Sentinel they had never not received any notice about any federal operations in the state.

“Colorado has no information about this rumored operation in Aurora at this time,” said Shelby Weiman, press secretary for Gov. Polis.

Crow said the Trump initiative is off base.

“Law enforcement should be targeting violent criminals, not raiding churches and schools to target families,” Crow said. “Aurora is one of the most diverse districts in the country. Immigrants live here, work, and pay taxes in our community. They are our neighbors, own small businesses, and go to school with our children. Surely we can fix our broken immigration system while having a humane and orderly immigration policy that does not target families and children.”

That’s when news about the use of Buckley SF Base drew swift criticism from Crow and other officials.

Aurora city officials addressing the news about looming immigrant raids said that local law enforcement is not involved in planning or executing the Aurora DHS operation.

“We are not involved in the development and activation of such plans,” Aurora spokesperson Ryan Luby said in a statement. “As we have said numerous times previously, Colorado state law prohibits local governments from engaging in typical immigration-specific enforcement or detention. We focus on enforcing state and local law.”

The city added that while it will cooperate with federal partners as required by law, its role remains limited under state restrictions. 

“As we always have, we will work with our federal partners and follow federal law and directives as they apply to our community and as we are allowed. We will always follow state and federal law,” Luby said in the statement.

Aurora Public Schools officials have sent letters to parents explaining how schools would handle encounters with immigration officials.

Aurora Public Schools told parents in a letter sent home with students Wednesday that families should be prepared in case of any type of immigration enforcement, inside or out of school.

“School leaders will follow clear procedures to protect students and their information. We will contact our legal office and follow the proper legal steps before sharing any information. Immigration officers would only be allowed in a school building if they have a judicial warrant. Parents and guardians will be informed if any requests are made regarding their child. Please know that school staff do not know students’ immigration status and we would never ask for their immigration status,” the letter states.

Cherry Creek School District officials said they were committed to ensuring a safe and inclusive environment for students amid potential uncertainty. 

“We continue to have conversations with local, state and federal agencies and partners as we plan for a variety of scenarios that could impact our students, staff and community,” Lauren Snell, public information officer for Cherry Creek Public Schools, said in a statement. “As a public education institution, we remain fully committed to do everything we can to ensure our students and schools are safe and welcoming spaces and that all students have equal access to quality education.”

Immigration rights organizations in the region said the news of operations is divisive and causing dangerous fear across several communities.

“Reports of planned ICE raids in Aurora targeting immigrants under the guise of public safety are deeply alarming,” officials from the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition said in a statement. “These operations are not about safety — they are about criminalizing immigrants, tearing families apart, and fueling the private prison industry’s profits at the expense of human suffering.”

Other Aurora immigrant news spread from New York on Tuesday.

An operation in the the New York City Bronx last week snared Anderson Zambrano-Pacheco, 26, who authorities said was one of several men, including members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, who entered an apartment in Aurora last summer and were recorded on a widely viewed video. Several of the suspects were previously arrested in Colorado and New York.

The incident caught President Donald Trump’s attention during the presidential campaign, and he announced a plan called “Operation Aurora” to target migrant gangs. The video led Trump to claim that Aurora had been taken over by the gang, which city officials denied.

In an arrest warrant, Aurora police said Zambrano-Pacheco was also wanted in a kidnapping in which at least 20 armed men abducted and threatened two people in late June. In addition, police said Zambrano-Pacheco was with a group of armed men before a shooting occurred shortly after the apartment incident that was caught on video.

Two arrest warrants accused Zambrano-Pacheco of kidnapping, burglary and felony menacing. It was not immediately clear if he had a lawyer or if he was a member of Tren de Aragua.

Local and federal authorities, including Aurora police and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, investigated the apartment incident for months beginning when Joe Biden was still president.

DEA agents rush into a vacant building on the 6600 block of Federal Boulevard in Adams County early Jan. 26 as part of a drug raid officials say involved “dozens” of members of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang. 

DEA officials said the raid came after months of investigation and was not part of a new direction in enforcement dictated by the Trump administration.

DEA agents, working with unnamed local police officials, ATF agents and Homeland Security officials said the gathering was an “invite-only” event, and that guns and illegal drugs were confiscated during the arrest, according to the social media post.

On Saturday, hundreds of protesters turned out to Aurora’s Fletcher Plaza on a cold and snowy January day to rally against Trump administration threats of mass deportations.

The rally drew as many as 700 immigrants, activists and allies determined to challenge national and local anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies affecting Aurora’s diverse population.

“When we stand together organized in resistance, we can break the machine of fear and greed that these billionaires are building,” said Moira Casado Cassidy. “The world that we actually deserve is possible.”

Colorado Dems critical of new immigration law

Trump last week signed a new immigration bill, which local Democrats and others across the nation oppose, saying it precludes due process.

The bill passed 64-35, with 12 Democrats joining with Republicans voting in favor.

Both Colorado Democratic senators Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper voted no on the bill.

Crow, after the passage and signing, has also been a vocal critic.

Passage of the Laken Riley Act — named after a Georgia nursing student whose murder by a Venezuelan man last year became a rallying cry for Trump’s White House campaign — was a sign of how Congress has shifted sharply right on border security and immigration. Passage came just minutes before Trump signed the first of his executive orders.

“We don’t want criminals coming into our country,” Trump told supporters at the Capitol last month. 

“Anyone who commits a crime should be held accountable. That’s why I voted to pass the Laken Riley Act,” Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., said on social media after its passage. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., said that a “secure border” and support for immigration were “fully compatible.”

“If you come into this country illegally and you commit a crime, you should not be free to roam the streets of this nation,” said Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., who helped push the bill through the Senate.

The legislation would require federal authorities to detain migrants accused of crimes, including shoplifting, and would grant states new legal standing to challenge federal immigration decisions, including by immigration judges.

Critics of the bill say that provision will open the door for Republican state attorneys general to wage a legal battle against federal immigration decisions, injecting even more uncertainty and partisanship into immigration policy.

Currently, the Laken Riley Act has no funding attached to it, but Democrats on the Appropriations Committee estimate the bill would cost $83 billion over the next three years, according to a memo obtained by The Associated Press. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has estimated it would need to nearly triple the number of detention beds and conduct more than 80 removal flights per week to implement the requirements, according to the memo.

“That’s a lot of money to spend on a bill that is going to cause chaos, punish legal immigrants and undermine due process in America — all while drawing resources away from true threats,” said Washington Sen. Patty Murray, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, in a floor speech last week.

Crow, Hickenlooper and Bennet joined other Democrats who also raised concerns about its impact on immigrants who have received deportation protection from an Obama-era program called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. Trump sought to end the program during his first term, but he also occasionally expressed openness to allowing those covered by it to stay in the U.S.

— The Associated Press contributed to this story