Army veteran facing charges for allegedly obstructing ICE

U.S. Army veteran Mel Flores is facing three Class 2 Misdemeanor counts for obstructing government operations, obstructing a peace officer, and reckless endangerment. The charges stem from an Oct. 17 incident that occurred while Flores was acting as a volunteer confirmer for the Colorado Rapid Response Network (CORRN). 

The CORRN website explains it is a network made up of “multiple immigrant advocacies and activist groups” and “is committed to responding to raids, deportation, and any Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity happening across the state in our communities.”

CORRN operates a 24/7 hotline where callers may request rapid response support during an immigration raid or arrest. The hotline dispatcher alerts legal observers and confirmers via text who then go to the scene, record the event, identify agents involved, and inform persons involved of their constitutional rights.

Flores told the Pikes Peak Bulletin he joined the United States Army when he was 17 and served from 2007 to 2011, and was deployed to Baghdad from 2008 to 2009 as an all-wheel mechanic. He said the same values that inspired him to join the Army – to protect and serve – led him to start volunteering about a year and a half ago as a confirmer for the Colorado Rapid Response Network (CORRN).

Flores said the incident related to the charges happened when he responded to an alert from CORRN about possible ICE activity. 

Affidavit account
An affidavit submitted to El Paso County District Court outlines the “probable cause” in support of an arrest warrant for Flores. Victims are identified as ICE Agent David Rash, the State of Colorado, and the Department of Homeland Security.

The “affiant” (the author of the account given in the affidavit who swears it is true) is Sgt. David Fisher with the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office.

Fisher’s affidavit states that on Oct. 17 at approximately 10 a.m., El Paso County Regional Dispatch Center received a call from Rash stating he and his partner, Deportation Officer Alex Williams, were driving west on Academy Boulevard and Highway 85/87 and were being pursued by a male driver and female passenger who had “confronted and started harassing them while they were conducting surveillance in the area nearby.”

Rash, according to the affidavit, said the driver was operating the vehicle erratically and “weaving through the cones going through the construction areas on Academy to keep up with their vehicles.”

“Agent Rash stayed on the line and advised the vehicle was continuing to follow him South on I25 and following him as he exited on Cimmaron,” the affidavit states.

Fisher’s affidavit states he advised Rash to drive to “the front of the [Sheriff’s Office] building as I was standing outside waiting to receive him.” Fisher states he saw the agents’ car and Flores’s car, and gave Flores “loud verbal commands to stop and exit the car,” but Flores instead “put the car into reverse, reversing into oncoming traffic, causing the vehicles to stop and turn out of the way” and then drove away.

Fisher states Rash said he and Williams were conducting surveillance at a site in the area of 3390 Drennan Industrial Loop, attempting to confirm the location of a suspect, when they were approached by Flores who “began shouting at them for being ICE Agents, video recording and causing a disturbance. (The report does not state who the suspect was or whether the suspect had criminal charges or a final deportation order). Fisher states Rash told him “they did not want an issue to occur with the recent threats and violence towards ICE Agents and could no longer perform their surveillance operations and decided they would leave the area.”

As the agents were leaving, Flores began following Williams, “flipping [them] off and shouting ‘la Migra’ out the window,” according to the affidavit. Allegedly, when Flores noticed Agent Rash was also an ICE agent, he “quickly slammed on the breaks, swerving into the construction area at Academy and Bradley, waiting for Agent Rash to pass him and then pulling out onto Academy, cutting off drivers and driving at a fast rate of speed, passing vehicles to catch up to him.”

Flores allegedly followed the agents for 5.6 miles over a period of about 16 minutes. Fisher’s affidavit states “they became concerned for their safety based on the suspect’s actions and behavior and decided to call into dispatch to request assistance from deputies.”

Fisher states he followed up on the case and directed deputies to attempt contact with Flores and the passenger who was identified as Gabrielle Reyes. Vehicle registration and drivers license photographs were used to confirm identities and their address. Deputies were unable to make contact.

Flores’s account
Flores agrees with parts of Sgt. Fisher’s account – he agrees that he followed the agents’ cars, honking and shouting – though he disputes that he was driving recklessly, or that anything he did constitutes illegal behavior.

“Observing ICE is not a crime,” he said. “Screaming out your window is not a crime. Honking is not a crime. Letting people know ICE is in the neighborhood is not a crime.”

Flores told the Bulletin that though he did not do anything illegal, he has been treated “like a criminal,” including an experience at the El Paso County Jail he described as “degrading.”

“Instead of getting the dignity of a ticket, or citation, or a court appearance, they were giving me warrants so I had to go get naked, get handcuffed. You know, the whole nine,” he said.

The legal issues have also cost him a job.

Flores said he had “a great opportunity” lined up, but when his would-be employer did a background check, it showed the three active warrants.

“I was never notified from the Sheriff’s Office, not through the mail, on my door, nothing,” he said.

“So instead of going to a job for my first day, I went to jail to get those warrants taken care of, and the new job didn’t want to work with me anymore,” he told the Bulletin. “So now I’m unemployed.”

Flores said he turned himself in on Jan. 5 and was there for about 5 hours before being released on a $400 bond.

Flores had an initial appearance on Jan. 20. Around 20 people gathered outside the courthouse during his initial appearance to show support for him. Some held signs with slogans, including “Drop the charges now” and “Free Mel Flores.”

Some of the supporters were with Colorado Springs Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (COSAARPR), which Flores said has helped him by raising funds to pay his bond and rallying outside the jail until he was released from custody.

One of the supporters identified herself to the Bulletin as Tiffany. She declined to give a last name due to fear of retaliation. Tiffany said she is a volunteer with About Face: Veterans Against the War – a group for “post-9/11 service members and veterans organizing to end a foreign policy of permanent war and the use of military weapons, tactics, and values in communities across the country,” according to the organization’s website – and noted that Flores is also a member of this organization.

Tiffany said she sees a “strong tie” between veterans who left military service feeling the experience was not in line with their personal ethics and veterans who volunteer for nonprofits like CORRN and About Face. 

“We’re all out here because we are trying to be helpful, to help our neighbors, to protect other people around us,” she said. “And I think … attempting to criminalize somebody yelling out their window and alerting their neighbors is abhorrent.”

Flores has a pretrial conference scheduled for Jan. 29.