Some 20 people gathered Thursday at the La Plata County Fairgrounds to meet Michael Dougherty, Colorado 20th Judicial District Attorney and candidate for Colorado attorney general. Constitutional rights and holding U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to account were at the front of many attendees’ minds.
The event, hosted by Indivisible Durango, a local pro-democracy advocacy group, was held in light of rising political tensions stemming from increased deportation operations carried out by ICE agents nationwide, including in Durango.
Dougherty, who has served as an attorney for nearly three decades, first in the Manhattan (New York) District Attorney’s Office and later in Colorado’s Attorney General’s Office, acknowledged that the topic of ICE’s increased presence and legally questionable actions was a “difficult and troubling topic.”
Dougherty advised that the goal for residents who want to protest the agency’s actions is to be committed to nonviolence and avoid escalating conflicts with federal agents, while still gathering and recording agents as they carry out their operations.
“I want to make sure that the people of Colorado are not hurt or killed, and that if they are, they are given justice,” Dougherty said.
Still, some members of the crowd who had come to see Dougherty voiced concerns that ICE was acting in defiance of the U.S. Constitution.
“It’s like bringing your constitutional rights to a gunfight – you’re still gonna get killed,” one attendee commented to Dougherty.
Other attendees asked about the legality of ICE’s use of masks, the use of force, arrests of American citizens rather than undocumented immigrants, and the cooperation of local law enforcement with ICE.
“We want to fight for our communities, to fight for justice, but that doesn’t mean we have to physically fight,” Dougherty said. “You have a First Amendment right to free speech, you don’t have a right to obstruct. You just escalate everything in that moment.”
Knowing what is – and what is not – protected under the First Amendment can help keep protesters safe and avoid conflicts where they get hurt or killed, he said.
For instance, attending a protest or filming ICE agents is protected under the First Amendment, but trying to physically obstruct them is not, and could result in the agents using force or performing arrests.
Additionally, Dougherty brought up ways Colorado has worked to clarify what ICE is legally allowed to do.
He said he helped work on Senate Bill 237, which designated public schools and day care centers as places ICE legally could not make arrests on undocumented immigrants.
Additionally, ICE agents are required to have a judicial warrant – one expressly signed by a judge – to enter private property, such as restaurants or private residences, he said.
The law also prohibits local law enforcement agencies from working with or assisting federal agents in their operations, including sharing Flock camera data and asking people for their citizenship status.
Dougherty also said that Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser will open a portal on the attorney general’s website where residents can share their concerns and documentation of potential misconduct by ICE.
sedmondson@durangoherald.com
