How are we feeling about ICE activity here?

Editor:

Hey Gunnison community. How is everyone feeling about ICE activity in Gunnison County? While they haven’t shot anyone in the streets, ICE arrives here about once a week and detains someone who is then deported having committed no criminal offense. Unauthorized presence in the U.S. is a civil offense, not criminal. Best estimates are that as many as 60 immigrants have been taken by ICE in Gunnison in the last 18 months. Normally two or three immigrants a year are deported from Gunnison, people who committed serious crimes, usually drug-related. Nobody, immigrants included, disagrees with that.

Who are these 60 people who’ve disappeared, 95% of whom are not criminals? They are friends, family, valued employees and employers. They pay taxes, though they’re rarely eligible for tax-funded benefits. They spend money at local businesses and pay rent. They are church members. Many are parents separated from their spouses and children by deportation. Many of the children left behind are US citizens. I’ve personally watched the lingering shock and disorientation in the faces of several young mothers and small children whose dads disappeared. They are human beings and neighbors. Not criminals. Recent studies in Texas found that US citizens commit serious crimes at about twice the rate immigrants do.

How does ICE find these people? Most of them are picked up at the county jail, out of the public eye without being convicted of anything. Jail staff communicates with ICE and coordinates release times with ICE. So when a Hispanic prisoner is released, ICE is there to detain them the moment they walk out. They are handcuffed, shackled and chained without any explanation of why and no one present to translate. I have witnessed this more than once.

I am not anti-law enforcement. My father-in-law was a career policeman and president of his Fraternal Order of Police chapter. He served with honor and distinction. Every local officer I have met seems to strive to exemplify those same ideals. So why would they want to be associated with ICE, an organization that understandably has a horrendous reputation? ICE is poorly trained, poorly led, embarrassingly unprofessional and in no way embodies the sense of honor, service and professionalism foundational to community law enforcement. Mutual trust between community members and officers is essential. So why would officers erode or erase that trust by aiding ICE?

Why have our local elected public servants tolerated that? I’ve heard answers like, “We must all work together so local government can continue to serve all.” Work together to imprison innocent people? Is that a community value here? Or, “We cooperate with ICE because we’ll need them someday.” Need them for what? To shoot the wrong person? Illegal forced entry? We need the FBI, the DEA and the CBP at the border. But ICE here?

ICE is a disgraceful organization. Cooperating with them and tolerating them is disgraceful. Anyone with a healthy human conscience should do everything possible to stop ICE activity in Gunnison.

Election season is here. Our sheriff, one county commissioner and other public servants face re-election soon. Many will run unopposed, but this is still an urgent time to passionately and peacefully discuss vital issues. Like helping me explain to my bright 5-year-old U.S. citizen friend why his father disappeared and no one knows when or if he will return. Come on Gunnison. We’re better than this. Speak up. At least start asking lots of questions.

Rev. Joe Burgess

Gunnison