Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Colorado Bill SB 2083 prohibits ice from making arrests at courthouses across Colorado. It also protects people while they're going to and from court. But Enrique Orozco Perez, the executive director of Compaero's Immigrant Resource center, says this law was potentially violated. In Durango last fall, we had two
[00:00:24] Speaker B: community members who went to court as they were told to do. They went to court and then when they were leaving, ICE followed them for a couple blocks and then detained them right near the garage.
[00:00:35] Speaker A: The La Plata County Courthouse in Durango is a combined courthouse. This means it processes not only municipal and state cases, but federal cases too.
And the law doesn't apply to federal courthouses. And advocates are seeing a similar trend at other combined courthouses across the state.
[00:00:56] Speaker C: I know, for example, in Glenwood Springs, we saw something very similar where somebody was detained inside the courthouse building, but it was, it's technically a combined courthouse, similar to what Durango is seeing.
[00:01:11] Speaker A: Naida Benitez is the director of organizing at the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition, which supported the bill when it was first introduced in 2020.
She says this law was intended to create a better functioning justice system across the state.
[00:01:28] Speaker C: SB2083 is really only applicable for civil arrests happening inside and very close to like right outside a county, municipal or State Courthouse.
SB 2083 does not apply to federal
[00:01:46] Speaker A: courthouses, but ICE agents can still enter courthouses. This leads advocates like Orozco Perez to believe that ICE is targeting Spanish and Latin American names on the docket and accessing their information.
[00:02:02] Speaker B: So we think that they're exploiting this loophole in our state legal system to monitor our members, especially members that are on the docket with non Anglo last names.
[00:02:14] Speaker A: Beatrice Garcia Waddell is the Western Slope organizer for serc. She's also seeing immigrants detained several days after a court appearance.
[00:02:25] Speaker D: There is a few cases in this area, people from Pebosa, from Moctezuma and Durango that has been detained after a few days of the court eyes get this information with what the court publicized and they investigate the person and find their addresses and, you know, all the personal information and they arrest that person after a few days of having that court. So there is a few tactics, tactics that we notice are happening.
[00:03:02] Speaker A: And she says there was a woman in Montezuma county who was the victim of a car accident. Her name appeared on the docket one
[00:03:11] Speaker D: day that she was planning to go to the hospital. After the accident, she got detained.
So we, we know that this is not only for people who is charged for something, civil violation or or criminal charges, but also because they have been a victim of a crime.
[00:03:32] Speaker A: Advocates fear this will prevent immigrant victims from reporting crimes due to fear of detention or deportation, and there is no
[00:03:41] Speaker D: accountability of the federal government and what it's doing in our communities.
[00:03:46] Speaker A: In Colorado, Brittany Gutierrez is the DOCU team coordinator at SERC and the Colorado Rapid Response Network.
Her team documents immigration arrests, and she has seen an uptick in the past few months of ICE detaining people a few days after their court appointments or right after they leave the courthouse. I think what I can attest to is that it's something that I'm seeing almost every day, and she says she's seeing it almost everywhere. It's not one specific area that they're targeting. I have seen it different courthouses, different cities throughout the state. Because of these tactics, SERC is recommending that people request virtual court appointments if possible.
SERC also helps lead volunteers across the state to accompany individuals during their court appointments who request it.
[00:04:38] Speaker C: You know, we're not legal advocates. We don't give legal advice.
[00:04:42] Speaker A: This is M. Kara Oskosonger. They are a volunteer coordinator in La Plata County. When someone reaches out with a request for court accompaniment, two to four people will show up to support the community members.
[00:04:55] Speaker C: We're not here to interfere in the court proceedings or interfere if ICE shows up, but we are here to be witness and let people know that they have our support and also to let ICE know that we're watching.
[00:05:10] Speaker A: People requesting accompaniment to court or volunteers interested in participating in the program can contact the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition or compaero's Immigrant Resource center in Durango. For KDUR and Rocky Mountain Community Radio, I'm Jamie Wanczek.
