County residents impacted by ICE crackdowns

No confirmation from federal agents

By Katherine Nettles

The Trump administration’s immigration crackdown has not landed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in Gunnison County, but the federal policies have apparently affected local residents. Testimonies are increasingly coming in that immigrants have been detained upon checking in for immigration status appointments and been prevented from returning to their homes in Gunnison. Local advocates are asking for transparency and communication from authorities, and given the frightening nature of these situations, it is difficult to obtain first-hand accounts and to verify detainees’ identities and  current whereabouts.

Gunnison County commissioner Liz Smith has been in touch with members of the local immigration community and said she is deeply concerned by the stories she is hearing that people’s neighbors or family members have been taken into custody during what they believed was a routine check-in with authorities.

“I feel it’s really important to emphasize people were not taken from Gunnison,” conveys Smith. Rather, she is aware of at least two adult community members who showed up for appointments with ICE and were immediately arrested.

The Crested Butte News has not been able to verify the identities of the alleged subjects, but multiple sources indicate there have been at least four cases. One alleged detainee was a long-time resident and business owner in Gunnison, and another, deported, is a mother who may have children in the valley.

“My understanding is she was not going to be able to come back,” relays Smith. “The business owner was told he was being deported to Africa, (despite being from Central America) and was treated poorly.”

Gunnison resident Marketa Zubkova has been an immigrant community advocate in the valley for more than 20 years, and in the past year she has become part of the new Juntos por Gunnison, a collaborative immigrant community center.

Zubkova describes that Juntos por Gunnison members come from all over the world. “Spanish speaking countries make up the majority of places, including the Cora community,” she says.

Zubkova says she too is aware of people being detained by ICE. “We have had a few community members who never returned from their immigration appointments in Grand Junction,” she confirms. “They have usually been moved to an ICE detention facility in Aurora, but sometimes deported.”

She emphasizes that this is not happening when people try to renew a work visa, which is now done online or by mail. Zubkova says the subjects have a range of different cases. “Usually it is because they had contact with ICE officials or border patrol in the past. These are people who have either turned themselves in previously [for illegal status] or have asked for asylum.” She says many local immigrants have for years reported for periodic ICE check-ins while awaiting an immigration or asylum hearing.

Zubkova says her organization has collaborated with others since the beginning of the year when ICE agents received federal orders to arrest more immigrants without legal status, hosting workshops called “Know your rights,” to help people understand what to expect in a changing and uncertain environment.

During a county commissioner’s meeting last week, Smith stated her concern.

“This is hitting people pretty hard and I think we’re really trying to walk that balance of making sure accurate information is out without stoking unnecessary fear. We’re trying to make sure the information is accessible and that it’s transparent so we can minimize the anxiety people are feeling,” she said.

“There are a lot of layers in some of these cases,” noted commissioner chair Laura Puckett Daniels, who said she attended an intergovernmental dinner with law enforcement officials recently and discussed it with them. Puckett Daniels asked if there is any information as to why these people have been targeted, or if there had been any crimes committed prior to their detention. “It’s really hard to understand what’s going on if there is no transparency or communication,” she said.

“For those of us who are concerned it resonates with the larger issue of people being treated with human dignity,” says Smith. “In these cases people who were here had work visas and were working legally as part of our community. And even the suggestion that there could be such disrespect occurring and thoughtlessness of the fact that people had built lives here is very upsetting to me.

“When we hear about [ICE facility] conditions and the way people are kept, my concern is the lack of respect to people, whatever their status,” continues Smith. “I think people all deserve respect. There is a lack of dignity that this represents, and I worry about normalizing this. This does not demonstrate the baseline of human dignity that the people in this country should expect.”

The News reached out to local law enforcement agents, but they had no information.

“I did speak with a federal law enforcement person out of Grand Junction. There is no enforcement activity at immigration appointments happening on the Western Slope to his knowledge. [I have] no specific information on those you asked about. [I am] not sure he could say if he knew,” wrote Gunnison chief of police Sam Costello in an email.

Gunnison County Sheriff Adam Murdie responded he also had been given no information about county residents being detained. The stated mission of ICE, according to the federal website, is “to protect America from the cross-border crime and illegal immigration that threaten national security.” The Enforcement and Removal operations (ERO) wing is meant to “target public safety threats, such as convicted criminal undocumented aliens and gang members as well as individuals who have otherwise violated our nation’s immigration laws, including those who illegally re-entered the country after being removed and immigration fugitives ordered removed by federal immigration judges.”