This story was first published in the Colorado Times Recorder.
Over 50 people gathered in front of the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office Tuesday to protest this weekend’s multi-agency raid in Colorado Springs which resulted in the detention of over 100 people.
“These 115 people who went into ICE custody Saturday night into Sunday morning were in the country illegally, and ICE detained them, and they will be processing them for deportations,” Jonathan Pullen, the Drug Enforcement Agency’s (DEA) special agent in charge for Colorado, said during a Monday appearance on the Jeff and Bill show. “These are federal charges, these are immigration charges. ICE will certainly go through their process, but they’re likely all looking at deportation. So when we were on scene, ICE ran every one of these people, literally all 200 of them. We made sure the citizens were free to go as long as they didn’t have arrest [warrants] or they didn’t have cocaine in their pocket. And if they were illegal aliens, ICE looked at them and if they determined that they could be deported or they were here illegally, they took them into custody and they’ll go through that process. But that’s 115 people who were involved in drug trafficking or at least using those drugs and prostitution. A lot of those guys had guns. They’re not coming back to the streets of Colorado Springs today.”
The raid has drawn condemnation from local, state, and national activists, who have raised concerns that the involvement of multiple law enforcement agencies was simply a pretext for ICE to conduct an immigration raid.
“We are asking for transparency and accountability from the [El Paso County] Sheriff and from CSPD,” said Nayda Benitez, an organizing director with the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition (CIRC). “What was their role? Did they have warrants to be able to conduct this operation? Outside of ICE, we know there were multiple federal agencies involved. Outside of ICE, did any agency question people about their immigration status? Because in Colorado, just for folks to know, that’s illegal. In Colorado, local law enforcement cannot question or detain someone solely based on their immigration status.”
In response to media scrutiny of the raid, El Paso County Sheriff Joe Roybal released a statement Tuesday on social media.
“I refuse to sit back and allow people to make law enforcement the villains,” he said. “These same people want the community to believe those involved in illegal activity are victims. The operation designed to stop criminal activity early on Sunday morning did not take place in a church, school, grocery store, library, or any other location where law-abiding citizens carry on with their lives. It took place in an establishment created and known for the open use and sale of illicit drugs, gang activity, violence, and the sale of women (human trafficking) for sex. We must question and ask why people frequent such an establishment. Those present at the illegal nightclub contributed to, participated in, or, at the very least, were aware of the activities within the establishment. Criminals must not be allowed to hide behind the cloak of their immigration status as a shield from prosecution and accountability. As Sheriff, I am wholly committed to keeping the citizens and deputies who live and work in my community safe. To do so, we will continue to arrest and charge criminals regardless of their country of origin. I will not allow media and those who are not public safety experts to continue pushing a false narrative and defame the hard work of my deputies and law enforcement in the Pikes Peak region.”
Benitez said that reports received by CIRC are at odds with law enforcement’s account of the event.
“The testimonies we’ve heard are contradictory to what we’re hearing in local media,” she said. “We know that it was a ‘drug operation,’ and that there were multiple federal agencies involved, but there are testimonies from people we’ve connected with that have that they just showed up. It was a regular night out for them, they weren’t involved with any drugs or anything. When agents came in, they had guns to people’s heads. They felt like the focus – people were racially or ethnically profiled for just being there, and for looking a certain way. We’re really concerned about this narrative around drug operations and targeting specific areas of the community. The plaza [Academy Crossing in Southeast Colorado Springs] itself has a lot of immigrant businesses or Latino businesses there. What we’re asking for is just accountability and transparency. Some of those questions are just, what was local law enforcement’s role? Did they have warrants for this operation outside of local law?”
Elected officials in Colorado have voiced their support for the operation. “It’s kind of shocking to see that that stuff’s going on right under our nose and has for a long period of time, but I’m also very proud of the execution of that [raid],” said U.S. Rep. Jeff Crank (R-CO) during a Tuesday appearance on KVOR Radio’s “Richard Randall Show.” “I’m very proud of our sheriff, very proud of our law enforcement folks who helped execute that raid, and, of course, CSPD as well, who work well with these federal agencies. This is what we’ve been fighting about this whole time with Governor [Jared] Polis talking about us being a sanctuary state. Well, we’re not a sanctuary community in Colorado Springs or El Paso County, and we just proved that. That was awesome.”
Colorado Springs Mayor Yemi Mobolade, himself an immigrant from Nigeria, also voiced support for the raid. “I anticipate that there will be more arrests,” he said during an appearance on NewsNation. “I hope to see more raids happen in my city. This is not the first one. These operations often take months to get to a point where we can actually go in, and it takes a lot of coordination between so many different partners. Forty of my police officers were involved in this on the ground raid, working with many of our federal partners.”
It’s not just El Paso County officials who are promoting their cooperation with federal agencies. Yesterday, Teller County Sheriff Jason Mikesell, who recently announced plans to run for Governor in 2026, held a press conference to celebrate a recent murder arrest and discuss Senate Bill 25-276, which would put data protections in place for immigrants and limit where federal immigration authorities can physically access without a warrant.
“SB276 is a very comprehensive document that really attempts to stop all law enforcement in Colorado from assisting any federal investigation working with ICE throughout Colorado,” said Mikesell. “Here’s some of the effects that we’re starting to see in the state of Colorado right now – there’s really a false narrative. That false narrative is that ICE is coming into communities and they’re taking people out of schools and really dealing with children. I’ve been a sheriff for 28 years, I’ve never seen that with ICE. I’ve been the lead on working with ICE for multiple of these types happen, so I want to dispel the rumors and myths that really the legislature is presenting in testimony that this is happening in Colorado. I’ve not seen it done in any of the work that we have done.”
Again, Benitez notes that the immigrant community in Colorado has a different experience. “Just this morning, we heard about a smaller raid in front of Glenwood Springs Middle School,” she told rally attendees.
Benitez said Mikesell’s position on the bill isn’t a surprise.
“We know the Colorado Sheriff’s Association is opposed to this bill,” she said. “What I can tell you is what is actually in the bill and let people make up their mind. One of the main things that it will do is it will reinforce people’s constitutional rights anywhere near or outside of public schools, public libraries, health care facilities, child care facilities. It includes public universities. We think that’s a measure to keep people safe, right? Because people should be able to go to school, drop off their kids at daycare, go to the hospital without the fear of being separated from their family. It will also strengthen regulations or policies in place so that personal identifying information cannot be freely shared with ICE, unless there’s a criminal investigation and a valid judicial warrant involved. It does a bunch of other things, but we see this as a measure of just protecting everyone in Colorado, regardless of immigration status, and the bill isn’t just about immigration, but it’s also about federal overreach and basic freedoms for everyone.”
