Largest ICE Raids In Colorado Since Trump Returned to Office
Three raids targeting undocumented immigrants have unfolded since Trump returned to office in January with plans for mass deportations.
By Bennito L. Kelty
May 1, 2025
Colorado has seen hundreds of federal law enforcement agents, including from ICE and the DEA, arrest immigrants accused of being gang members during a series of raids since Trump returned to office. ice.gov
Since President Donald Trump took office in January, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has had a high-profile presence in Colorado. arresting hundreds of people during headline-grabbing roundups in the state's biggest cities.
Raids by ICE alongside the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) in the Denver metro and Colorado Springs show that Trump is following through on his promise of mass deportations. He even named the plan "Operation Aurora" in October during a visit to the city, which was the center of claims of violent gangs of Venezuelan migrants taking over apartment buildings.
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While three major raids have taken place, ICE has also made numerous arrests on smaller scales in Colorado, most notably the arrest of Jeanette Vizguerra, a Mexican immigrant who made national headlines during her effort to take sanctuary in a Denver church in 2017. On April 1, a team of U.S. Marshals and ICE agents boarded an RTD bus on Colfax Avenue to arrest a Venezuelan man who escaped the Aurora ICE detention facility. On April 17, local activists recorded two masked ICE agents detaining at least two men outside of a Douglas County courthouse.
But the larger raids have shown a pattern of the ICE planning secretive, sweeping raids supposedly aimed at rounding up members of violent Latin American gangs. Here's a look at the major raids in Colorado that have attracted national media attention.
https://www.westword.com/news/largest-ice-raids-in-colorado-since-trump-returned-to-office-24410075
