Voces Unidas is excited to announce that Grupo Kaoba will perform at the 2026 Líderes Dinner Celebration on Saturday, October 3, at Colorado Mesa University in Grand Junction. Based in Denver, Grupo Kaoba has been performing for more than two decades, bringing together cumbia tropical, salsa, merengue and other Latin sounds. The group has performed throughout Colorado and shared the stage with well-known Latin artists and groups. Grupo Kaoba will close out this year’s Líderes

Voces Unidas will honor eight leaders from across Colorado at our 2026 Líderes Dinner Celebration on Saturday, October 3, at Colorado Mesa University in Grand Junction. The annual celebration recognizes Latino leaders and allies whose leadership, service and advocacy are strengthening communities across Western Colorado. 2026 Legislator of the Year: Rep. Elizabeth Velasco Our highest legislative honor goes to Rep. Elizabeth Velasco, recognizing her partnership with rural Lati

Colorado voters face 14 statewide ballot measures this year, and many of them are being pushed by right-wing extremists and corporations through dark-money groups with clear political agendas. Voces Unidas reviewed every one based on its impact on rural Latinas and Latinos. We urge a No vote on 11 and a Yes vote on three. The most dangerous is Amendment 81. It would require local police, jail staff and prosecutors to report suspected undocumented immigrants to ICE, even befor

Voces Unidas and COLOR shared topline findings from the 2026 Colorado Latino Policy Agenda survey with reporters today, offering a preview of some of the issues shaping the lives and priorities of Latino voters across the state. The survey is part of the Colorado Latino Agenda, a statewide public research initiative co-led by Voces Unidas and COLOR. This is the sixth year of the research. BSP Research surveyed 1,606 Latino registered voters across Colorado between July 1 and

For too long, many of the policy decisions affecting Western Colorado have been made without enough input from the Latino communities who live, work, raise families and help power the region’s economy. On Saturday, October 3, Voces Unidas will partner with Hispanic Affairs Project, Compañeros, Integrated Communities and others to convene the first Western Colorado Latino Policy Summit at Colorado Mesa University in Grand Junction, bringing together more than 50 Latino leaders

A new immigration ruling is creating serious concerns for people with DACA and others who have relied on advance parole. On August 13, the Board of Immigration Appeals issued an opinion on the Matter of Delcarmen-Lara, overturning more than a decade of precedent on advance parole. The ruling says that travel outside the United States with advance parole now counts as a “departure” for purposes of the 10-year unlawful presence bar. The Immigrant Legal Resource Center has warne

The 2026 legislative session left a bitter taste among those of us who spent 120 days with lawmakers under the gold dome advocating for policies to improve the lives of working folks. For Latino advocacy organizations like mine, Voces Unidas Action Fund, the session was largely defined by missed opportunities, watered-down protections and a profound failure of political courage at the highest levels of state leadership. Since 2021, Voces Unidas has graded the votes of all 100

Colorado’s 2026 primary election has concluded, and voters have chosen their nominees for local, legislative, statewide and congressional races. From county commissioner to sheriff, from the state House and Senate to governor and Congress, each political party had a ballot where voters could decide who should receive the party’s official nomination before the November general election. Voces Unidas Action Fund, as we have since 2021, endorsed and engaged in several competitiv

Dark money is trying to shape the June 30 Democratic primary for Colorado House District 13. Voters should ask what that money is trying to hide. Outside money is already moving to help Chris Floyd. Colorado Mountain Progressives, an independent expenditure committee with no ties to any existing local nonprofit, is supporting Floyd in the Democratic primary. Despite its name, it primarily supports big-business-friendly Democrats in primary races. Reporting shows the group rec

Voces Unidas Action Fund (Voces Unidas) released its 2026 Legislative Scorecard today, recognizing lawmakers who stood with rural Latino communities and exposing those who failed to meet the moment during a legislative session defined by weakened bills, missed opportunities, and too many excuses. Since 2021, Voces Unidas has published a scorecard tracking the votes and recording the positions of all state lawmakers, with an emphasis on the eight state house representatives

The 2026 Colorado Legislative Session ended on May 13. For Latino communities, it was a session defined by missed opportunities, weakened bills, and political decisions that fell short of what families needed. Voces Unidas Action Fund was deeply engaged this session, focused on worker protections, immigrant protections and law enforcement accountability, housing stability, mobile home park protections, climate resilience, and environmental justice. These priorities came direc

When she got a call from her husband, less than an hour after he left home for work, he told her he had been detained by ICE. She didn’t believe him. “I thought he was joking with me,” the wife said. “I told him to stop lying.” It was later that morning, after a trusted friend had checked the area and accompanied her to pick up his car a few blocks from their Rifle home, that it finally hit her. “I felt like he had died,” she said. “To see his truck and all his things abando

New public data from ICE offers a look at the scope of enforcement efforts in Colorado, including the Western Slope. While not perfect, this data provides our best available insight into the impact of these operations. The data comes from the Deportation Data Project at UC Berkeley School of Law, which obtained internal ICE records through public records litigation against the federal government. For the Western Slope, the data shows that at least 541 people with a connectio

Today, the Colorado General Assembly took a historic step to protect the state’s workforce by passing House Bill 26-1272 or also known as Extreme Temperatures Worker Protections. The legislation establishes a critical first step toward keeping workers safe on the job by gathering evidence and prioritizing education on temperature-related injury prevention planning in the face of increasing extreme heat and cold events caused by climate change. While the original bill was scal

Voces Unidas Action Fund is proud to announce its endorsements for the 2026 primary election, supporting candidates we believe will advance the priorities of rural Latino communities across the Western Slope. These endorsements reflect not only issue alignment, but also trust, access and a demonstrated willingness to partner with rural Latino communities. “As an organization that cares deeply about rural Latinos on the Western Slope, we support leaders who show up, listen, an

He thought he hired an attorney. After Luis Armando Rivas was detained by ICE, he and his family made sacrifices to secure competent legal representation to fight his deportation in a very complex and biased immigration legal system. After considering several quotes from law firms, they landed on a local option, Hector Gonzalez with Connect Immigration, who was charging about half of what other attorneys were charging at the time. They signed a contract and started a monthly

For the first time in modern Colorado history, the state legislature proactively voted to take a right away from a specific group of workers. Yes, a rollback on a right that already existed. The workers are farmworkers. Overwhelmingly Latino. Overwhelmingly immigrant. The bill is Senate Bill 26-121. On April 16, 2026, the Colorado House passed SB26-121 by a vote of 33 to 32, with Speaker Julie McCluskie casting the deciding vote. The Senate had already passed it on March 25 b

Today will go down in history as the day Colorado lawmakers decided that farmworkers should work 56 hours before they earn overtime pay. It is a slap in the face to overworked and already underpaid immigrants who do the backbreaking work this country depends on, work most Americans no longer do. I do not have easy words to describe what many Latinos are feeling tonight. It is grief. It is anger. It is betrayal. People who have never had their community singled out by hostile

In places like the Western Slope, immigration arrests are quietly increasing, usually with little media attention. The expansion of license plate readers is helping. Automated License Plate Reader technology allows police agencies, cities and private companies to set up cameras and automatically track passing cars, logging every license plate in a database. These camera systems claim to help law enforcement identify stolen vehicles, but they can also show where someone has be

For many of us on Colorado’s Western Slope, the struggle for farmworker dignity is deeply personal. My father was a farmworker when he first moved to this country, working as an undocumented laborer in the orchards around Hotchkiss and Delta in the 1970s. He worked in the fields of California as well, where I was born, not very far from the birthplace of America’s farmworkers movement. So when I see Colorado’s state legislature advancing a bill that undermines the dignity of