Eight Action Steps for Gunnison County Government to Stop Aiding ICE

Editor:

Whereas all residents of and visitors to Gunnison County are fully entitled to all basic human rights as well as specific rights spelled out in the US Constitution, rights including but not limited to the right to not be deprived of life, liberty or property without access to full and fair due process of law, and the right to maintain their innocence until proven guilty by a court of law;

And whereas as many as 60 people have been removed from our community in the last 18 months by ICE [U.S. Immigration and Enforcement] and related DHS [Department of Homeland Security] agencies under highly questionable if not entirely illegal circumstances, including but not limited to racial profiling and warrantless arrests;

Therefore, in order to restore public safety and stability and a healthy atmosphere of trust, transparent communication, and mutual support and cooperation within our Gunnison Valley Community, we challenge our Gunnison County government and staff (hereafter referred to as “the County”) to immediately initiate the following action steps:

1. All local law enforcement and all county employees, officials and contractors will stop communicating and cooperating with ICE and related DHS agencies in any way that would facilitate ICE detaining local residents or visitors.  Specifically, the Sheriff, Undersheriff, all officers, deputies, contractors and jail staff must stop communicating, coordinating or adjusting release times from the jail to aid ICE in detaining local residents or visitors.
2. The County will launch a comprehensive, detailed and in-depth investigation into exactly how, when, where and why community members were released from the County Jail into imminent ICE custody. All findings of this investigation will be made public immediately.
3. The County will establish and oversee clear and detailed channels of internal communication that report in detail any and all communication or interaction by any county official, employee or contractor with ICE and related DHS agencies, including any awareness of ICE presence or planned presence in Gunnison County.  All details of any communication with ICE and related DHS agencies will be made public immediately.
4. The County will launch a comprehensive program of community forums to determine how our community has been affected by the removal of nearly 60 people by ICE.
5. The County will proactively and repeatedly reach out to and into our local immigrant community to hear directly from them, at times and places and in ways that are safe for them to speak up, how they have been impacted by the removal of their friends, neighbors and family members.
6. The County will research what reparations might be made to county residents affected by deportations, including how those detained or deported might be safely returned to Gunnison County.
7. The County will provide free translation into Spanish of any and all county communication, be it written or spoken and recorded in public meetings.
8. The County will issue a formal and public apology to the community for having ignored all the above critical issues and concerns for over 18 months and counting.

If Gunnison County does not choose to implement these action steps, a completely undesirable yet seemingly honest alternative consistent with the County’s past and present inaction would be for the County to publicly declare itself to NOT be a welcoming community, and to clarify that the County does NOT indeed serve the whole Gunnison County community, and is NOT bound to follow the US Constitution or to provide due process of law.

Joe Burgess
Gunnison