AURORA, Colo. — Aurora City Council members on Monday will consider a resolution to stand in solidarity with Minneapolis police and oppose “unlawful and overreaching federal immigration enforcement actions and affirming constitutional due process protections."
The resolution, sponsored by Aurora Mayor Pro Tem Allison Coombs comes less than a week after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Agent Jonathan Ross shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Good, of Colorado Springs.
“This resolution is just standing in solidarity with the City of Minneapolis and their mayor in asking and seeing that ICE is not a good solution to some of the issues that they're having out there, that it's actually escalating some of the violence that we're seeing," said Aurora City Council member Alli Jackson. "So, we're standing in solidarity. We're naming that Renee Good was a U.S. citizen whose life was taken at the hands of an ICE agent."
Jackson said on the same day Ross killed Good, an ICE arrest in Aurora sparked concerns.
“A man in Aurora was picked up by ICE who was a dad, a single dad dropping his kid off at daycare. The daycare is actually who called local nonprofits in the area to say, ‘Hey, this, you know, this kid always comes in every day. We know her parent is undocumented, so we're worried’, and that's what set that chain off that same day," Jackson added. "So just seeing these incidents coincide on the same day, it really just sparked action from city council."
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Jackson said this resolution also shows a tonal shift from past council which aligned itself with ICE. Since the November election, the council now has a 6-4 progressive-leaning majority.
“We have got to do a lot of repair, because the previous city council really welcomed ICE, sparked Operation Aurora, spread really false claims about how intense the Tren de Aragua gang involvement was in Aurora and took a narrative that was based on racism and ran with it for political advantage,” Jackson said. “A lot of people who are against it think it's because we're trying to push a war to Sanctuary City. We're actually just falling in line with what state representatives have already set in law, which is that local officials do not cooperate with ICE.”
Jackson said she is hopeful the resolution will pass.
Aurora police chief says resolution risks hurting community as a whole
In a statement obtained by Denver7 late Monday afternoon, Aurora Police Chief Todd Chamberlain said that while he respects the autonomy of the council, "I believe [the resolution] will come at a cost."
The chief lamented that partnerships between local police departments and federal agencies "have been exploited for political purposes," and said hurting those partnerships risks leaving communities like Aurora "more vulnerable to crime and victimization."
“It is imperative for the community to understand the Aurora Police Department does not enforce federal immigration laws and has no authority to detain people on civil immigration detainers," Chamberlain said. "However, we have and will continue to work closely with our law enforcement partners at the local, state and federal levels to hold those who victimize members of our community accountable for their criminal actions."
In closing, the chief said partnering with federal agencies has enhanced the city's crime-fighting strategies and contributed to "measurable reductions in crime" for the city of Aurora.
