Federal immigration officials detained at least one person in Ouray this morning, according to eyewitness reports which have been confirmed by the Ouray County Sheriff’s Office.

According to an eyewitness, a man who was driving a white GMC was pulled over by three black Ford SUVs, directly in front of the Ouray Volunteer Fire Department’s garage doors on the east side of the Ouray Community Center at the corner of Sixth Avenue and Fourth Street, just after 10 a.m.

In what the eyewitness described as a quick interaction lasting only a few minutes, several men wearing vests marked “ERO” removed the man from the white GMC and put him in one of the black vehicles. One man was wearing a ski mask, preventing others from seeing his face. One of the men wearing an ERO vest drove away the man’s white GMC from the scene and he was taken away.

ERO is the acronym for ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations unit.

“It looked like a kidnapping,” the eyewitness said. The Plaindealer has agreed to not name the eyewitness due to fears of retribution from the federal government.

This photo shows one of the ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations officers involved in detaining a man  in Ouray this morning, in front of the Ouray Volunteer Fire Department garage doors. It was taken by an eyewitness.

It’s unclear at this time who was taken, where he was taken, or why he was detained. It’s unclear whether he is a local resident.

Ouray County Undersheriff Tammy Stroup confirmed it was ICE activity, in which her agency had no involvement. The sheriff’s office and other local law enforcement agencies here in Ouray County do not cooperate with ICE.

“They did not let us know they were going to be here,” said Stroup.

Ouray Interim Police Chief Daric Harvey also said his department did not have any knowledge of ICE’s operation. State law prohibits local law enforcement agencies from collaborating with ICE.

“When we have our trainings, we tell all of our guys that we steer clear of anything that has to do with ICE, unless there’s a safety situation,” said Stroup. “If somebody needs help, we’re going to be there for safety.”

The sheriff’s office does not allow deputies to ask about immigration status during interactions with the public, including traffic stops.

“We make it very, very clear to our guys, we will never ask immigration status. Ever,” she said.

Stroup said the sheriff’s office does not participate in group texts with ICE through apps like Signal, which was an issue raised in another county recently.

The Plaindealer reported earlier this year on another incident involving a Ouray County woman who was detained for months at an ICE facility in Aurora. She was detained when ICE officers picked her up after she bonded out of the Montrose County Jail. According to the Montrose County sheriff, ICE officials contacted the jail and asked if she was there, after accessing information about her arrest in the National Crime Information Center database.

The Colorado attorney general filed a lawsuit last month against Mesa County Sheriff’s Deputy Alex Zwinck for collaborating with ICE officials in a chat group meant for drug interdiction. He communicated about immigration status and location of a 19-year-old college student he pulled over for a traffic stop near Fruita in June.

She was initially contacted for following too closely, according to the Mesa County Sheriff’s Office’s internal investigation documents.

She wasn’t issued a citation, but the deputy asked her where she was born and communicated with ICE officials she was a Brazilian national on an expired Visa. Then he had her sit in his patrol car for at least five minutes, which allowed ICE officials more travel time to come apprehend her.

She was released with a warning from the sheriff’s deputy, but was soon picked up by ICE officials and spent 15 days in a detention center.

According to the internal investigation documents released by the Mesa County Sheriff’s Office, two of the department’s deputies and Colorado State Patrol drug interdiction officers had a “routine practice of sending information about persons they had stopped (including photos of identification documents) to the group chat” to have Homeland Security officials look up the individuals in federal databases to help their criminal drug investigations. But the deputies started getting requests back from the federal officials about their immigration status, which is a civil matter, not a criminal one. The deputies involved and their supervisors have been disciplined.

A new state law that went into effect in May strengthens protections for immigrants and prohibits law enforcement agencies from collaborating with ICE or detaining people for the purposes of immigration enforcement. It also limits the amount of information state agencies can give to federal agencies that could be used for immigration enforcement. The law also requires ICE to present a warrant signed by a judge to enter non-public areas of public buildings, including schools, libraries, healthcare facilities or childcare centers.

Related story: Ridgway Public Library OKs immigrant-protection policy

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