Hickenlooper demands DHS meeting as ICE fails to respond in Eagle County ‘death card’ case
Voces Unidas/Foto Cortesia…
Colorado U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper late Friday demanded a meeting with Department of Homeland Security officials after the agency’s failure to respond to Colorado lawmakers’ previous request for a briefing and independent investigation into so-called “death cards” left in forcibly abandoned vehicles in Eagle County after Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained up to 11 people in January.
“ICE has failed to provide to us the information on the reports of their agents leaving ‘death cards’ in detainee’s vehicles in Eagle County,” Hickenlooper wrote in a press statement Friday. “When we requested a meeting this week, ICE kicked the can down the road. We need immediate transparency, not deflections. People are terrified and this administration remains unaccountable.”
ICE officials in Denver last week did not respond to repeated requests by the Vail Daily for information on who was arrested Jan. 21, what crimes they were charged with, where they are being detained, and the status of the DHS internal investigation that they previously acknowledged to the Vail Daily.
In their Feb. 2 letter to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, Hickenlooper, Colorado U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, Colorado U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse, whose district includes the majority of Eagle County, and three other Colorado Democratic members of Congress flagged the use of unmarked vehicles with police lights in Eagle County on Jan. 21.
ICE has no local law enforcement authority, the lawmakers say, making such tactics deceptive and dangerous as federal officers try to enforce federal immigration laws. The “death cards” left in vehicles on the side of local roads, they say, is a clear bid to intimidate Eagle County residents.
Support Local Journalism
“Moreover, the ace of spades card has long been known as the ‘death card’ and has been used by white supremacist groups to inspire fear and threaten physical violence,” the lawmakers wrote. “It is unacceptable and dangerous for federal law enforcement to use this symbol to intimidate Latino communities. This behavior undermines public trust in law enforcement, raises serious civil rights concerns, and falls far short of the professional standards expected of federal agents.”
DHS is currently under a partial funding shutdown, but ICE and other immigration enforcement agencies are considered essential and were funded for years to come under President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act that was passed on partisan lines last summer.
Alex Sánchez, president and CEO of Voces Unidas, an immigrant rights advocacy group in Glenwood Springs with an office in Eagle County, runs a hotline (970-340-8586) for people dealing with ICE enforcement locally. Sánchez offered this comment late Friday:
“We asked Sen. Hickenlooper to hold ICE and DHS accountable, and we are glad he is doing so,” Sánchez wrote in an email. “If DHS and ICE have nothing to hide, they need to meet with Colorado’s congressional delegation and allow for a full independent investigation. We deserve better from the Trump administration.”
Democrats are refusing to increase DHS funding beyond current levels until major reforms are instituted in the wake of the fatal ICE shootings of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis last month.
Hickenlooper recently raised the issue of the “death cards” on the Senate floor, denounced the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota, and voted against the DHS funding bill because it fails to overhaul ICE.
“We will not let up until there’s a full independent investigation and real accountability,” Hickenlooper said Friday.
