THOUSANDS went down the streets on Wednesday and Saturday of last week following a series of dramatic raids by immigration and customs application (ICE) in any Denver while the demonstrators expressed solidarity With undocumented migrants and rage in Donald Trump’s war against immigrants.
“We are here to fight for our neighbors, to stay together and say no to the threats of the Trump administration,” Amanda Starks, a local artist during a rally that distributed literature to immigrants on Saturday.
She added: “I think it’s worse that in 2016, when we thought the GOP would resist Trump. Now they are all Christian nationalists, and we are faced with something bigger this time. But it brings together this community. »»
The American president gave himself a particular interest in the state historically adapted to immigrants from Colorado, calling for his deportation plan for the alleged Operation of Aurora, named after the suburbs of Denver claimed by him and echoed the media Conservatives as “taken up” by the Venezuelan gang, Tren of Aragua (ADD).
One of the executive orders signed on the first day in power of Trump was to reduce funding and send a stop order to Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network (RMIAN), a non -profit organization in Colorado offering legal services free to undocumented migrants. Due to the large volume of those who need it, Colorado has one of the lowest legal representation rates for undocumented immigrants.
Last week, the Swat teams, strongly armed, began to storm apartments around Denver and Aurora in the early hours of the morning – sometimes with a team of Fox News integrated into the teams – although with 30 arrests In all, a single member of a gang has been confirmed as being in detention.
With around 155,000 undocumented immigrants in Colorado fearing their safety, many local residents have rallied to show their support, as they can.
Despite their setbacks, last week, the RMIAN was able to offer an intensive course in immigration law to 100 colorado lawyers which, despite not working in this area, have brought their doors.
Whenever ice raids are spotted, group volunteers like the Legal Ressource Center immigrant are often at hand to provide literature on the legal rights of besieged persons. During the rally on Saturday outside the State Capitol building in Denver, activists with megaphones led a song and legal response, encouraging the crowd to “When the ice presents itself?” Followed by a collective roar: “Do not open the door!”
The demonstrator and the artists Starks, as well as many others, attended weekly rallies in a local methodist church on the best way to meet the legal needs of immigrants. An organizer placed the participation rate at a meeting last Monday at more than 1,500 people.
Many activists who were expressed during the rally on Saturday expressed contempt for the real estate management company based in New York CBZ Management, which oversees several properties in Aurora and Denver who were condemned to a fine or to living conditions sordid and negligent. Last August, Zev Baumgarten of CBZ Management, accused of being “a slumlord outside the state” by the mayor of Aurora, said that one of their Aurora apartments had been exceeded by the members of the Gang TDA, which was unable to provide the necessary repairs and services.
It took place just in time for Trump de Parrotquet the claims during his presidential debate against Kamala Harris a few weeks later, ultimately making Aurora an unlikely campaign place for the Republican candidate, since Colorado is a blue state reliable way since 2008.
For decades, Colorado cultivated a reputation for welcoming immigrants who have met the American-Mexican border, especially when they are seated in the rest of the nation.
In the 1990s, when the Democrats were removed on the right on issues such as immigration, the mayor of Denver, Wellington Webb, pushed this tide, criticizing the federal persecution of immigrants in an executive decree of 1998 and declaring That the capital of the State “would all welcome to share warm hospitality of Denver”.
He insisted on the fact: “We must respect this diversity and guarantee that the rights of all our residents are protected” and Denver “would not tolerate discrimination in any form”.
However, a hard right and anti-immigrant movement of the Republican Party found a representation at that time in Colorado, as in the form of the member of the Tom Tancredo Congress, who built his political career attacking Denver libraries for having stored Spanish books, calling for the expulsion of a high school student from Denver, stripping the “sanctuary cities” of their federal funding and calling for America to reject the “cult of multiculturalism”.
The decade of Tancredo as a member of Congress from 1999 to 2009, as well as his failed offers for the presidency and the governor, helped build the narrative architecture of what was going to become the anti-immigrant rage of the Made Made America again.
Despite the demonstrations last Wednesday and Saturday in Denver, parts of the state still hold enough conservative voters to keep Trump’s loyalists as representative Lauren Boebert in office.
Boebert recently united his forces with two other representatives of Colorado to put pressure on the State Democratic Governor, Jared Polis, to repeal a series of laws protecting the rights of immigrants in Colorado. Often called “democratic libertarian”, Polis approved the heart of the Trump expulsion plan.
“Hey Polis, where are you?” We have courage, and you? The crowd of the Saturday rally sang, while it was moving away from the Capitol Building and downtown Denver.
The march finally went up peacefully to the Capitol, where more literature were distributed and that future gatherings were announced.
“We take these threats (from Trump) very seriously,” said Katie Leonard, one of the speakers of Days and an organizer of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, who documented ice raids and published their locations on Social networks, leading to the arrival of more volunteers, often shouting legal advice to residents through megaphones or exploding neighborhoods with informative leaflets.
“But the decisive factor in what is happening here, when these ice raids come and bring people without discrimination, is whether the community is prepared, if people know their rights,” she said.
