DURANGO, Colo. — A Colombian man and his two children endured “36 hours in a dungeon” during their detainment at the ICE field office in Durango earlier this week, an official with an immigrant rights group organization in southwestern Colorado said Friday.
Fernando Jaramillo-Solano, 45, along with his two children, ages 12 and 15, were detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) while driving near their home Monday morning.
ICE had not initially shared why agents arrested the family in the first place, but our partners at The Denver Post reported Friday the agency had mistaken the father for somebody else.
Though there has been no official statement from ICE on the man’s arrest, reporting from the Post was corroborated by Enrique Arturo Orozco-Perez, the co-executive director of Compañeros: Four Corners Immigration Resource Center, who told Denver7 ICE agents were looking for a drug trafficking suspect at the time of the Jaramillo-Solano’s arrest.
News of the operation spread quickly through social media, sparking several protests in the small city after residents learned the family was going to be separated and transferred elsewhere.
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On Friday, Denver7 learned more about the conditions inside the ICE field office from Orozco-Perez, who claimed the family endured 36 hours inside what they called “a dungeon.”
Based on accounts from the family, Orozco-Perez told Denver7 Jaramillo-Solano and his two children were held in a small windowless room where the lights remained on at all times. The family did not see sunlight for three days, he claimed.
Orozco-Perez said the family did not have access to a private toilet and were only fed potato chips and water for the 36 hours they remained detained in Durango.
“They did not put us in a holding room,” the father of two reportedly told Orozco-Perez. “They put us in a dungeon. There was no daylight. There was no air. There was no rest.”
The immigrant rights advocate also claimed the 12-year-old suffered abuse at the hands of ICE agents at the Durango field office, calling their treatment in the 36 hours they were housed there “violent.”
“We know that the ICE agents pushed around [the 12-year-old] whenever she asked for something and that her father and her brother have scrapes and bruises across their body because they wanted to protect her,” Orozco-Perez said.
While those claims cannot be fully corroborated, City of Durango officials said Wednesday its police department “received a report that one of the children may have been in distress and potentially experiencing abuse,” and added that officers tried to conduct a welfare check on the children and to bring food. “Unfortunately, federal agents denied officers entry to the facility."
Though the family was never separated while in Durango and all three have since been transferred to an ICE facility in Dilley, Texas, which is located about 72 miles southwest of San Antonio, the kids remain without their mother, the immigrant rights advocate said.
“They are not safe. Their conditions are still harsh. Their future remains uncertain,” he said.
Orozco-Perez called on Colorado Republican lawmakers, including Rep. Rep. Jeff Hurd, Rep. Gabe Evans, and State Sen. Cleave Simpson to use their political power to bring the family back home.
“The father and his two children pose no danger to society, and we are confident they do not intend to flee from the authorities,” he said. “You have the power to help reunite this family in safety. We ask you to use it.”
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