By Lindsey Toomer, Colorado Newsline
Posted March 5, 2026
Multiple actions from Denver officials last week seek to protect the city from encroachment by the federal government, particularly in its immigration enforcement efforts.
On February 26, Denver Mayor Mike Johnston signed an executive order directing Denver police to intervene if federal immigration agents use excessive force that causes harm. He also ended the city’s contract with Flock Safety for license plate readers after hearing repeated concerns about the company’s role in helping the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement efforts. And Denver City Council is moving forward a measure that would prohibit law enforcement officers from wearing face masks that conceal their identities.
The policies come after months of escalating federal immigration enforcement activity across the country, particularly in Minneapolis and other Democratic-led cities and states. President Donald Trump has sent swarms of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to cities including Los Angeles, Chicago and Portland. Other cities have implemented policies to keep immigration enforcement operations off of city property.
Border Patrol agents shot and killed 37-year-old Alex Pretti in Minneapolis just two weeks after ICE officers shot and killed Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother of three. More than 50 people have died while in federal immigration custody under U.S. Secretary of Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem, according to Democrats on the U.S. House Homeland Security Committee. The immigration enforcement operations are part of Trump’s mass deportation efforts.
To protect Denver, if we see any ICE officer using excessive force against a Denver resident, we will step in to detain that officer and remove them from the situation. We hold our own officers to that standard, and we will hold any ICE agent to the same.”
Denver Mayor Mike Johnston
Johnston’s executive order says Denver will investigate and prosecute “violence, property damage, high-speed chases … and allegations of criminal conduct” by any immigration enforcement officer. Denver Chief of Police Ron Thomas and Denver Sheriff Elias Diggins both attended a press conference in support of Johnston’s executive order. Safety agencies are also directed to “protect and aid people in life-threatening situations, regardless of the law enforcement agency perpetrating the harm.”
“To protect Denver, if we see any ICE officer using excessive force against a Denver resident, we will step in to detain that officer and remove them from the situation,” Johnston said at the February 26 press conference. “We hold our own officers to that standard, and we will hold any ICE agent to the same.”
ICE will also be prohibited from entering any city-owned or controlled building. Denver will create a template that private businesses can use if they want to restrict the use of their spaces for immigration enforcement.
“We will not abide the abduction of working moms coming off a shift at Target the way ICE snatched community leaders like Jeanette Vizguerra,” Johnston said. “We will not abide grabbing 6-year-olds from the school pickup line or picking up grandmothers from church pews.”
Vizguerra rose to national attention as an immigrant rights activist during the first Trump administration when she took sanctuary in a Denver church to avoid deportation. Immigration officers arrested her last March outside of a Target, her workplace, and she was in ICE custody for nine months in what her lawyers said was retaliation for her exercise of free speech.
Immigration agents last year took almost 50 people into custody after an immigration and drug raid in Adams County. ICE detained a Utah college student in Grand Junction last summer shortly after she was pulled over by a Mesa County sheriff’s deputy in a separate traffic stop. The GEO Group’s immigration detention center in Aurora was near capacity earlier this year.
The Colorado Legislature is considering a bill that would allow people to sue immigration officers for alleged constitutional violations, among other measures to hold federal law enforcement accountable. Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser launched a section on his office’s public complaint system specifically for reporting misconduct by federal agents.
Denver City Council is expected to take a final vote on the bill that would ban law enforcement officers from wearing face masks at an upcoming meeting.
Johnston faced criticism in October when he extended a contract agreement with Flock for six months after the city council rejected a two-year contract with the company. The city will now work with Axon for license plate reader services.
“We’ve heard the community loud and clear and it is time to make a change,” Johnston said in a statement. “Axon is among our most reliable partners and will collaborate with us on strong safeguards that protect immigrants, women seeking reproductive healthcare, and the Constitutional rights of Denverites.”
Lindsey Toomer is a Reporter for Colorado Newsline. This
article is republished from Colorado Newsline under a Creative Commons license. Colorado Newsline is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
