The Aurora Police Department’s recent response to a brutal attack on a man and woman at the Edge at Lowry apartments is being criticized by immigrant rights advocates and the American Civil Liberties Union.
In a statement, advocacy groups, including the American Friends Service Committee, Casa de Paz, the East Colfax Community Collective and the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition, alleged the department indiscriminately raided the building, on the 1200 block of Dallas Street in the Delmar Parkway neighborhood, as they searched for the suspects.
Witnesses say police allegedly detained dozens of people, including children, for more than an hour outside the building in the cold, without an official arrest. Some were handcuffed. People were denied access to restrooms and medications. Officers separated children from their guardians and terrorized residents, the advocates claim.
The allegations are based on documents and testimonies from dozens of residents collected by the Colorado Rapid Response Network.
The group investigates Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity in the state.
“APD officers detained many individuals in APD vehicles, including children as young as 3 and 8 years old, without presenting arrest warrants or telling people why they were arrested,” wrote Tim Macdonald, ACLU of Colorado’s Legal Director, in a statement. “Rather than booking or charging them with any crimes, APD officers turned many of the residents over to ICE agents, where they were held in ICE vehicles and transported to ICE detention.”
At least five individuals who had no criminal charges were handed over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Jennifer Piper, of the American Friends Service Committee, said in a statement.
The ACLU says doing so is a violation of state law.
“APD has stated that they were responding to alleged crimes on the premises,” Macdonald wrote. “Whether APD’s asserted law enforcement objectives were legitimate or pretextual, the officers executed the raid in a manner that appears to have exceeded their authority under Colorado law.”
Officers have arrested 16 people for the kidnapping and assault in the complex.
The couple, believed to be Venezuelan immigrants, were taken from their apartment to a vacant unit and brutalized for hours before talking their captors into letting them go. Authorities have said they believe the suspected perpetrators are members of the Tren de Aruaga gang. Three additional people who were arrested in the case were later let go, after investigators determined they had nothing to do with the crime.
The Aurora Police Department declined Denverite’s requests for arrest affidavits and body-worn camera footage that would demonstrate what actually happened. The department said releasing records related to the much-publicized attack would not be in the public’s interest until the police finished their investigation.
State law requires the Aurora Police Department to release body-worn camera footage within 21 days if a complaint over officer misconduct is formally filed. So far, that hasn’t happened.
“Participating in federal civil immigration enforcement not only puts local and state law enforcement on a collision course with the Colorado Constitution and statutes, but it also instills fear in our communities and undermines public safety,” the ACLU letter stated.
What's next?
After the raid, the American Civil Liberties Union sent a letter to all Colorado sheriffs and pretrial juvenile detention centers demanding they not participate in President-elect Donald Trump’s plans for mass detention and deportation.
“Colorado statutes and the Colorado Constitution forbid state and local law enforcement from arresting or detaining any person for civil immigration purposes, including at the request of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE),” wrote Macdonald and Annie Kurtz, the ACLU of Colorado’s senior staff attorney.
The ACLU has not said whether it plans to sue Aurora Police.
“We have taken legal action against law enforcement offices that ran afoul of Colorado law, and if necessary, will do so again,” Macdonald wrote.
