These are in no way normal times in Aurora and the nation, and local police and city leaders have to acknowledge that and react to problems linked to the federal government based on that reality.
Aurora city council members voted 6-4 earlier this month to reject a proposed working agreement between local police and the officials who run the for-profit ICE prison in the city.
Ten years ago, the resulting vote and surrounding drama — on what in other times would simply be a clerical task — would have been surreal. Now, it’s a reflection of how capricious and dangerous the federal government has become under the control of President Donald Trump and compliant Republicans in Congress.
The rejected memorandum of understanding between Aurora police and the Florida based GEO Group, which operates the Aurora immigration detention center for ICE and the Department of Homeland Security, mostly spells out when and how local police will respond to calls for service and public safety issues at the prison.
Such intergovernmental agreements, even between private companies acting on behalf of a government, are hardly unusual. Aurora is party to hundreds of such pacts detailing who is responsible for what, and under what conditions. Aurora and other police and fire departments regularly spell out if and when the city or another jurisdiction will help out a neighboring department.
Amid seemingly endless controversy and scandal linked to how the GEO Group and ICE operate the immigrant prison, problems made public after two detainees escaped from the northwest Aurora facility last year prompted the new proposed and now rejected pact.
Just after the escapes, linked to a power failure at the jail, ICE officials blamed Aurora police for failing to respond fast enough to the escape of two detainees, and they got away. Aurora Police Chief Todd Chamberlain pushed back on the false allegations, pointing out that local police were not notified by ICE of the escapes until hours after the detainees had gotten out a side door of the prison and far away. Because the documented call from ICE came in long after the detainees had fled, the incident didn’t meet criteria for an urgent response under the existing agreement, police said.
Since then, the city worked to create a new agreement, very much like the old one, that makes clear how officers will respond to escapes and other public safety issues in and near the prison.
The effort drew astounding rebukes two weeks ago from local immigrant activists and the majority of city council as well. The problem is one of trust.
Under the Trump administration, Homeland Security and ICE have become incompetent and rogue agencies. Agents have wrongly and flagrantly killed, injured and detained Americans and immigrants in a misguided and corrupt effort to rid the nation of immigrants. Not only has Trump and his lackeys lost the faith of the vast majority of Americans to competently and legally carry out the duties of the government, especially when it comes to enforcing immigration law, but his administration has become a corrupt and legal catastrophe imposed on the nation — and Aurora.
The situation in Aurora has been complicated, and made worse, because of the large immigrant community in the city and the mixed messages from local police about the critical problem with the Trump administration and its public safety agencies.
While city officials and police Chief Todd Chamberlain himself have repeatedly said Aurora police do not and will not, under state law, enforce federal immigration laws, Chamberlain has undermined that message by touting dubious cooperative efforts between local police and federal agencies in rounding up immigrants.
Last August, Chamberlain and federal ICE and other officials announced results of a joint “sting” operation where 30 defendants, many supposed Venezuelan gang members and illegal immigrants, were charged with gun crimes after undercover officers offered to pay suspects to go find them guns.
In-depth reporting by Colorado Public Radio on the sham cases, which mostly settled with plea deals, made it clear the entire scheme was a publicity stunt. There is no wanton cartel hierarchy in Aurora. This was a loose collection of impoverished and desperate immigrants drawn into undercover sting operations by offers of cash.
Chamberlain’s bragging about the operation and making clear Aurora police were encouraged by their part in the scam further undermines the department’s already shaky trust problem, especially among immigrants and people of color, who make up more than half of Aurora.
There should be no surprise among city officials and police that a normally mundane agreement could turn into another public relations nightmare for police.
Even if the Trump administration were to be swept away by a competent, principled government, it will take years of vast improvements in transparency and independent review and reporting to restore faith in what the Trump administration has so gravely damaged, aided by Aurora police.
Local police must do much more than point out state law in its relationship with key federal agencies. Given the undeniable corruption and illegal actions by agents tied to the Trump administration, police must make clear that criminal federal agents can and will be held accountable to the law and the Constitution the same as any other criminal in the city.
