While the City of Gunnison has limited authority when it comes to federal immigration policies, city officials are taking extra steps to reduce the spread of misinformation.
Proposed Trump administration policy changes have incited fear within the country’s immigrant communities. According to national reporting this week, President Donald Trump plans to take at least 10 actions related to immigration, including escalating the deportation of migrants who entered the U.S. illegally, and an attempt to end birthright citizenship. Fearing the possibility of family separations, a number of Gunnison residents have asked the city what kind of immigration enforcement they should expect within the valley.
According to Raquel Lane-Arellano of the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition (CIRC), the state has some of the strongest immigrant protection laws in the nation, many passed after the first Trump administration. But with federal policy in a state of flux, many Colorado residents fear the prospect of mass deportation. Some concerns have been stoked by social media, and others by life experience. And in rural areas like the Western Slope, immigrants typically have access to far fewer resources, such as legal services or nonprofit support, compared to their urban neighbors on the Front Range.
“In Colorado, our landscape and our protections have dramatically improved,” Lane-Arellano said. “The vocal support and the shift in the country has moved away from being with the immigrant community by and large, and I think that's frightening folks.”
Through initiatives like Rural Welcoming Week, the city has labeled itself as a “welcoming” community, and continually recognizes the contributions of immigrants to the overall health and wellbeing of the Gunnison Valley. But since the 2024 election was decided, a number of Gunnison residents have reached out to city leaders for more information about Colorado’s immigration policies. During a regular city council meeting on Jan. 14, city staff, alongside the Gunnison Police Department, provided clarity on its limited role.
Residents were encouraged to ask questions during the standing-room-only meeting in City Hall. The conversation lasted more than an hour, and was streamed live and then posted on the city’s Facebook page.
“We’re not really in a position to comment on what’s happening at the national level,” City Manager Amanda Wilson told the Times after the meeting. “But the overarching concern [among residents] is the fear of the unknown.”
The open discussion, conducted in English and Spanish, was the first of many, Wilson said. The city plans to host a series of educational sessions and trainings, called a “community academy,” in the coming months. Local group Inmigrantes Unidos de Gunnison will host a public meeting on Feb. 7 to ask the community exactly what type of information would be helpful heading into the new year.
The authority of local law enforcement agencies, such as the Gunnison Police Department and the Gunnison County Sheriff’s Office, is restricted by state and federal laws. Because immigration policy is handled by the federal agency, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the city and county do not directly participate in enforcement. Colorado law also states that the federal government (for example ICE) does not have the authority to command state or local law enforcement officers to enforce or administer its programs.
Currently, the sheriff’s office is required to notify federal immigration officers when they have taken an undocumented person into custody. ICE may then send a document asking the sheriff to hold the person for their immigration status, called an immigration detainer. But it’s not a legal warrant, Gunnison County Sheriff Adam Murdie told the Times. At this point in time, a Colorado police officer may only arrest someone on a criminal warrant that has been signed by a judge, and not based solely on their immigration status.
Murdie said Colorado's stance on immigration is strong and will likely prevent any immediate changes to state law.
“It's going to be status quo until Colorado changes the way they do business, which I don't foresee in the near future,” Murdie said.
In recent years, Colorado lawmakers have taken steps to curb how much help local law enforcement officers can give federal immigration officials. In 2019, House Bill 1124 started to delineate between local law enforcement’s role with public safety and ICE’s role with federal immigration enforcement. It prohibited Colorado law enforcement officials from holding or, “detaining,” someone in jail beyond their original sentence solely based on their immigration status.
Another bill, passed in 2023, ended contracts that allowed Colorado jails to rent bed space to ICE. Only two Colorado counties, Moffat and Teller, had ongoing agreements with the federal agency. According to CIRC, these laws help keep communities safe, as residents — regardless of their citizen status — are more likely to reach out to local law enforcement and report crimes without fear of family separation.
“These laws do give us a lot of hope … When Trump was first elected we were nowhere near the level of protection we managed to get to today,” Lane-Arellano said. “It took decades of organizing and community work, immigrants sharing their stories and speaking out.”
While Colorado’s position is clear, new immigration laws are already being proposed at the national level. During the city council meeting, Marketa Zubkova expressed worry that things may change quickly. She works with the newly formed Juntos Por Gunnison.
“[I do hope that] our local community will stay safe, and there will be no cooperation with ICE,” Zubkova told the city.
On Tuesday morning, Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser announced that he and a coalition of state attorneys general would challenge a White House executive order ending birthright citizenship. But the Laken Riley Act, which would require the mandatory detention of undocumented individuals if they have been charged, accused or arrested for burglary and other theft-related crimes, may be one of the first immigration bills President Trump signs into law.
The law’s supporters hope the legislation helps reduce crime, following the murder of 22-year-old nursing student Laken Riley, for whom the law is named. According to reporting in Colorado Newsline, immigration authorities say the perpetrator entered the U.S. illegally and had been previously charged with other crimes.
While some Democrats voted in support of the bill, Colorado Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper both opposed the legislation.
“Immigration reform is long overdue in this country and should build on individual rights, not strip them,” Bennet said in a press release on Jan. 15. “This legislation in its current form burdens families, local economies, courts and law enforcement without any support for the existing challenges they face.”
Rep. Lauren Boebert, who formerly represented the Western Slope in U.S. Congressional District 3, voted in favor of the bill when it was introduced in 2024.
“The American people are being subjected to an illegal alien crime wave caused by the left’s open-border and sanctuary city policies that have resulted in the preventable deaths of victims like Laken Riley,” she said in a statement.
Community academy
The Gunnison Police Department’s upcoming educational sessions are designed to reduce some of the negative feelings residents can associate with law enforcement agencies. In the past, the city has hosted a demonstration that showed residents what to do if and when an officer pulls them over. That is not always the result of traffic violations, and could be a courtesy stop to let a driver know a headlight is out, for example. It’s another way to show the community that police officers are “here to help,” Detective Chris Danos said.
Creating these relationships — ones where residents feel comfortable calling 911, reporting a crime or asking a police officer for assistance — is even more important for the valley’s newcomers, said Ricardo Esqueda, community and policy liaison for the city.
“Newcomers to the community can be coming from an entirely different dynamic where there is use of force and violence in their community, and corruption,” Esqueda said. “We are trying to work to establish that positive relationship for people, because they [police officers] are here to protect our community.”
For more information on the upcoming input sessions and community training, visit gunnisonco.gov/.
(Bella Biondini can be contacted at 970.641.1414 or bella@gunnisontimes.com.)
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