Department of Homeland Security shutdown unlikely to stop ICE enforcement in Vail area

While a shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that started early Saturday may eventually begin to impact travel to the Vail area during what’s left of a troubled ski season, it’s unlikely to slow the immigration enforcement that’s at the heart of the latest government lockdown.

Both Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) are considered essential government functions and funded to the tune of more than $130 billion by last year’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Democrats in Congress are demanding major reforms to the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in the wake of recent fatal ICE shootings.

Colorado U.S. Sens. John Hickenlooper and Michael Bennet last week dug in their heels, refusing to approve additional funding for DHS until a slew of demands are met, from unmasking agents to ending racial profiling to use-of-force rules to judicial warrants.

“The American people have seen with their own eyes that ICE is out of control. The agency needs a top-to-bottom overhaul,” Hickenlooper said in a statement last week. “We’ll use every tool at our disposal until ICE is overhauled to keep our communities safe.”

Bennet similarly rejected more DHS funding until real immigration enforcement reforms are instituted, even if it means other departments under DHS such as the Transportation Security Administration and Federal Emergency Management Agency are adversely impacted.

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“Republicans in control of the Senate once again are sending legislators home without a clear path to ensuring ICE is subject to the same, common-sense practices we expect from our local law enforcement,” Bennet said. “As a result, some of the key federal agencies that help keep us safe, like FEMA and TSA, will go without funding while the Senate takes a week off.”

President Donald Trump, defending ICE actions in Minneapolis and pushing back on the DHS shutdown, said on Friday, “You always have to protect our law enforcement. They’ve done a great job. Remember, they’ve taken out hundreds of thousands of criminals out of our country.”

Vail and surrounding Eagle County – dependent on both tourists and workers from Mexico and other Latin American countries — are still on edge. ICE arrested multiple people across the county late last month and allegedly made another arrest at a gas station in Eagle last week, according to Voces Unidas, an immigrant rights advocacy organization based in Glenwood Springs. Local law enforcement also confirmed ICE activity in Eagle on Feb. 9.

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Also, according to Voces Unidas, abandoned cars in EagleVail contained playing cards meant to intimidate immigrants, prompting an internal investigation by DHS.

ICE public affairs officials in Denver did not respond to multiple requests for an update on who they have arrested in Eagle County in recent weeks, what crimes they were charged with, and where they’re being held. Nor did they respond to a request for an update on the internal DHS investigation into the playing cards.

Vail officials still maintain they have seen no credible evidence of ICE enforcement in town the evening of Jan. 21, when other arrests were reportedly made in EagleVail and elsewhere. Images sent to the Vail Police Department by members of the public have been Vail’s own police vehicles, and Vail police responded to several false reports of ICE arrests at local restaurants.

“It just underscores the confusion. Not every unmarked (police) vehicle is ICE,” town of Vail spokesperson Kris Widlak said.

Alex Sánchez, president and CEO of Voces Unidas, said their focus is ensuring proper legal representation and finding out where people are being detained. He said detainees and family members have shared details of ICE activity through the group’s hotline (970-340-8586).

“I can confirm that 11 people were detained on the same day in Eagle County on that day in January,” Sánchez said. “I can confirm that that same night they were active in multiple locations. I can confirm that they were active in Vail.”

Sánchez fully backs the DHS funding shutdown and supports the efforts of Hickenlooper, Bennet and other Senate Democrats but adds commonsense reforms should be a bipartisan issue.

“We should expect our federal law enforcement to act and feel the same way as our local police department, as our local, state agencies,” Sánchez said. “We should expect them to identify themselves. We should expect them to have a judicial warrant. We should expect them to respect the rights of individuals. We should make sure that people are treated with dignity and respect. We should obviously make sure that people are not abusing their power, using excess force.”

And, when and if local law enforcement agencies receive notification from ICE prior to an enforcement action, he feels the public should be informed, unless it’s for a criminal warrant.

“Our expectation of our local elected leaders as well as public officials is that if they know information that is about civil enforcement, we believe they have a duty to tell their voters,” Sánchez said. “If it’s a criminal case, i.e., there’s a judicial warrant, I don’t expect, nor do I believe it’s appropriate, for law enforcement to communicate publicly before the operation happens.”

Vail’s Widlak said ICE typically notifies local law enforcement through the main dispatch center located in Vail that it will be executing an unspecified number of felony warrants in the county, which was the case on Jan. 20. They do not follow up with how many people were arrested.

“They call, they say we’ve got a felony warrant for X amount of people, and we will be in your county,” Widlak said. “They don’t tell us who, they don’t tell us how many people, there’s no result that we know of. We only get the result based on the same information you do. We know of nine people who were arrested, but there could be more, but they don’t report it to us. They don’t say, ‘We’ve left and we’ve taken 11 people with us.'”

When asked about ICE using data from six recently installed Flock cameras in Vail, Widlak referred to a statement Vail Police Chief Ryan Kenney sent to a concerned citizen: “These Flock cameras function the same as other Flock cameras in that they collect license plate data. The Vail Police Department has found these cameras invaluable when it comes to solving crimes. We have and continue to use these cameras for numerous criminal investigations. Federal agencies, FBI, ATF, DEA, HSI, etc., do not have unfettered access to our cameras but they do have access. If they contact us looking for information, we confirm the information they are seeking is related to an ongoing criminal investigation and the information is released.”