Aurora grapples with ‘sanctuary city’ label

A group of around 30 supporters huddled close to Jeanette Vizguerra and her three children in Aurora’s City Park on a muggy Thursday in August.

“These processes are torturous,” Vizguerra, 43, said, through tears. “To be in limbo, to be in the unknown, it’s torture for your family.”

Vizguerra, who has lived undocumented in the United States for 20 years, knows it better than most. The rally was organized as Vizguerra again anxiously awaited word on whether she would receive a stay of removal from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“I’ve been through the anguish of short stays four times now, and I know February will come fast and I intend to be ready,” she said in a statement Wednesday, after learning she had received yet another six-month reprieve from ICE to be able to remain in Colorado, following the rally. 

For the past six years, the Aurora resident has lived in fear of being deported, and has managed to remain in the United States by being granted numerous temporary stays from ICE. She was one of the first undocumented immigrants in the state to share her story publicly after being pulled over in 2009 for having an expired license plate.

At the time Coloradans couldn’t get a license if they couldn’t prove status, and much of Aurora operated under the federal Secure Communities program, which required local law enforcement officials to detain people whom ICE thought were in the country illegally.

Today, the city operates under a different standard that prohibits Aurora police from taking a proactive role in the enforcement of immigration.

According to city documents, the Secure Communities program was repealed in November 2014 and replaced by the Priority Enforcement Program (PEP). As a part of PEP, all individuals placed in custody in the city’s holding facility are fingerprinted, whether they are documented or not.

From there, the information is sent to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, which then shares the information with ICE. The enforcement agency then has a window of four hours when they are allowed to pick up a detainee. If they miss that window of time, the detainee is released just like anyone else.

The issue was a central talking point at an Aurora City Council intergovernmental relations policy committee meeting in August, where council members discussed Aurora being included along with several cities in the state labeled as “sanctuary cities” for providing a degree of shelter to undocumented immigrants.

The term “sanctuary city” has become a rallying cry for proponents of stiffer immigration laws. They characterize such places as havens where those in the country illegally are protected from immigration authorities.

But the label is far from any kind of official designation. The reality behind the phrase is that while some cities actively thumb their noses at federal immigration policies, many refuse to enforce them not because of any moral obligation to immigrants; they fear lawsuits.

“Throughout the country in major cities, most police chiefs have incorporated a policy that the police department will not take a role in enforcing immigration,” said Aurora Police Chief Nick Metz at the meeting in August. 

Last year, a spate of localities that had long worked closely with ICE stopped honoring detainers in response to a federal court ruling. The case found that in Oregon, the so-called immigration detainers — which ask local police to hold people suspected of living undocumented in the United States for up to 48 hours — were not sufficient reason to keep someone in jail.

In response, immigration authorities said they would start asking police to simply notify them when a suspected illegal immigrant is about to get released — not necessarily detain them. They believe the new approach, combined with a focus on more serious offenders, will lead to better collaboration from local law enforcement.

“It’s not necessarily a philosophical issue or debate,” Metz said. “It’s from the standpoint of as our cities become more diverse, as our cities take in more and more folks who are from other countries, as a police department and a police chief, you want to make sure the people feel comfortable calling 911.”

Metz said communities are safer when police officers don’t serve as immigration officers.

“There are some municipalities or counties throughout the United States that have taken on the role of enforcing immigration and it has really created a chilling effect in some communities to be willing to call 911 or to be willing to stand as a witness and say, ‘I saw this specific crime occur, or I was a victim of a crime,’” Metz said.

Today, the city operates under a different standard that prohibits Aurora police from taking a proactive role in the enforcement of immigration.

While the Aurora Police Department does not take a role in the enforcement of immigration law, it does review and endorse forms used to establish eligibility for some undocumented residents to obtain U-Visas. The visas are part of provisions Congress gives to some individuals who have suffered mental or physical abuse and are helpful to law enforcement or government officials in the investigation or prosecution of criminal activity.

Aurora Police Division Chief Vanessa Wilson said at the meeting for an individual to qualify for a U-Visa they must meet three qualifications. Those include that the individual suffered substantial physical or mental abuse from being the victim of a crime, the individual possesses information concerning criminal activity  and “has been helpful, is being helpful, or is likely to be helpful” in the investigation or prosecution of that activity, and that the activity has occurred in the United States.

“We get probably on average, 10 a month,” Metz said of those visas. “We review those files and determine whether or not that individual qualifies.”

Aurora Court Administrator Zelda DeBoyes said when Aurora did participate in the Secure Communities initiative, the result was costly, and often, ICE was not able to pick all of the individuals the local court detained.

“Under Secure Communities we would have anywhere between 1,100 to 1,300 people that we reported as being illegal,” she said. “The numbers they would pick up would be minuscule compared to the numbers we reported to ICE.”

Stacie Harding, assistant city attorney, added that it costs the state $13 million a year to enforce the Secured Communities program, and that number doesn’t even  take potential lawsuits into account.

Councilwoman Marsha Berzins said during the meeting she did not like the stigma attached to Aurora being included on the list with other sanctuary cities.

Since the fatal shooting of Kathryn Steinle on a San Francisco pier allegedly by an immigrant who was released from jail even though U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement sought to deport him for a sixth time, the debate over how to handle cities and counties that refuse to cooperate with immigration authorities has reached a feverish pitch.

“I just don’t want us to be put in the same category of San Fransisco. That’s why I want us off of this list,”  she said.

After the Thursday rally, Vizguerra said she is glad Aurora City Council is looking at the issue.

“We have to start approaching these decision makers and make them understand the very damaging and hurtful impact their policies and rhetoric have on families just like mine,” she said. “To help them be uncomfortable, to help them understand the damage they cause in our communities and how to make them feel that everyday.”

— The Associated Press contributed to this story.

Editor’s note: An earlier version of the story incorrectly stated that Aurora police played a role in issuing U-Visas. That forms used to issue U-Visas are reviewed and endorsed by Aurora police, but police do not have a role in approving or issuing the visas themselves. We regret the error.