Gov. Jared Polis quietly issued guidance this week barring state agencies from releasing Coloradans’ personal information to federal entities that plan to use the data for the sole purpose of immigration enforcement. The directive issued Wednesday prevents U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and other federal agencies from gathering data unless they have a court […]
immigrants
Posted inBusiness, Coloradans, COVID, Health, News
Coronavirus has left an Aurora clinic for refugees busier than ever and facing big challenges
“If she was my mom, I would take her to the hospital,” Dr. P.J. Parmar said through a barely cracked car window to a refugee family from South Asia on April 11. Parmar, who runs Ardas Family Medicine in Aurora, had been the family’s doctor for years. He knew the woman sitting in the backseat […]
Posted inOpinion, Write On, Colorado
As one who teaches prisoners writing and literature, I offer this to all of us living in isolation
In this Poem You Have a Door to prisoners, refugees, immigrants, aged infirm, children at their screens, quarantined, us What I need to write nowis a different sortof poem, one thatdings like a text or betterrings like a phonecall and when youanswer it isyour best friend, brother,child, something, someone likethat and everything is perfectlyfine, they […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Opinion: Do what’s best for all Coloradans by protecting our immigrant community
In 2014, I sat across the kitchen table of a community leader in southwest Denver who sighed, “Angela, se requiere mucho coraje para vivir esta vida.” Angela, it requires a lot of righteous indignation to live this life. At the time I was working as a community organizer alongside parishioners from St. Cajetan’s Catholic Parish […]
Posted inCrime and Courts, News, Politics and Government
Woman taking refuge in southwest Colorado church hits 1,000 day mark
By Mary Shinn, The Durango Herald MANCOS — When longtime Cortez resident Rosa Sabido first sought sanctuary from deportation in Mancos United Methodist Church more than 1,000 days ago, she expected to stay for a few weeks to a year. As the fight for her legal residency stretched into years, she decided she would not […]
Posted inCrime and Courts, News, Politics and Government
Colorado to consider bill similar to one that prompted DHS to cut off “trusted-traveler” programs for New Yorkers
Colorado’s legislature will soon consider a bill that would limit the personal information state departments, including the Division of Motor Vehicles, can release to other government agencies, like U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S Customs and Border Protection. A similar law in New York prompted the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which oversees immigration […]
Posted inCrime and Courts, News, Politics and Government
ICE asks federal judge to force Denver to turn over information on 4 men subject to deportation
By Colleen Slevin, The Associated Press U.S. immigration officials are asking a federal judge to force Denver to turn over information about four men accused of crimes who are subject to deportation after the city refused to comply with its order to do so. In a continued escalation of the conflict between federal officials and […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Opinion: I’m the proof that American immigration reform is overdue
The word immigrant conjures up a certain image. That image might be border detention facilities, or travel bans; it might be of refugees or asylees. It’s probably not of someone like me. It would be hard to overstate how easy immigrating here from Canada was for me. I’m a straight, cisgendered, white man; calling me […]
Posted inCrime and Courts, News, Politics and Government
Denver officials won’t hand over information sought by Immigration and Customs Enforcement
By Colleen Long, The Associated Press WASHINGTON — Denver officials on Thursday said they would not hand over information requested by U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement on four men wanted for deportation. ICE, the Homeland Security agency tasked with arresting and deporting people in the U.S. illegally, sent four administrative subpoenas earlier this week to law enforcement […]
Posted inBusiness, News, Politics and Government
Spring Café linked refugees with state lawmakers. A shortage of immigrants means the Denver coffee shop will close.
Spring Café, just blocks from the Colorado Capitol, has for the past four years provided a kind of two-way civics lesson for the caffeine-starved state lawmakers who patronize it and the newly arrived refugees who work there and serve them. Legislative deals are cut at the coffee shop’s tiny round tables. Behind the counter and […]