The first day of Latino Advocacy Day brought more than 300 people together from across Colorado, including 100 youth, for the start of a three-day effort leading up to Monday’s formal day of action at the Capitol. Participants spent the day grounding themselves in the Colorado Latino Agenda and moving through issue briefings focused on housing justice, community safety, worker protections, environmental justice, and affordable healthcare. In the housing sessions, people dug i

Today, Voces Unidas joined coalition partners, impacted workers, and lawmakers on the West Steps of the Colorado State Capitol to announce a new bill to protect workers from dangerous extreme heat and cold on the job. More than 20 impacted workers stood alongside advocates and legislative sponsors to mark the public start of this effort and to make clear that Colorado cannot keep treating extreme temperatures at work like they are normal. It was the start of a statewide push

In the Western Slope, you can feel it when someone disappears. A spouse doesn’t come home. A parent doesn’t show up for pickup. A coworker never makes it to work. And suddenly everyone has questions: can we still open for lunch, are we next, who can help, who knows what happened. People also talk about what they’re seeing on the road during their morning commute: masked, armed men in unmarked cars. Stops that don’t feel like real traffic stops. Windows broken. People dragged

In a mountain town, a snow day feels familiar. The snow stacks up fast, the roads turn into a hazard, and temperatures drop. Schools announce a late-start. Tourists sleep in. Employers tell office staff to work from home. In places like Aspen, Snowmass, Vail, and Breckenridge, the resort economy doesn’t pause—it just expects the town to be ready. Safety becomes a “shared decision”—for the people who get to stay inside. But for many Latino workers, a snow day starts before daw

Drive I-70 from Summit County over Vail Pass, through Eagle and Garfield counties, past Glenwood Springs and Rifle, and into Mesa County and Grand Junction. It feels like one continuous stretch of highway. But along that drive, different jurisdictions are using license plate reader cameras that track vehicles as they pass. And it’s not just towns along I-70. Across the Western Slope, communities are installing or debating these systems. Glenwood Springs operates license plate

Today, Voces Unidas testified in strong support of HB26-1145 , a bill to strengthen Colorado’s mobile home park water quality program. HB26-1145 builds on HB23-1257, the 2023 law Voces Unidas helped pass that created Colorado’s first statewide program to test drinking water in mobile home parks and require a consistent process to collect results and act on them. For years, residents have raised concerns with their local elected leaders. Families have brought rust-colored wate

The U.S. Senate refused to fund the Department of Homeland Security last week, and we support that decision. Senators Bennet and Hickenlooper stood their ground and voted the right way, just before the Friday midnight funding deadline. As an organization, we are clear on our position. Not another dime for ICE. Not now. Not later. Even during this partial shutdown, ICE has not slowed down. We have confirmed the first ICE arrest in Eagle County during this partial shutdown. Tha

As our community is aware, last month in Eagle County, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained nine Latino community members during a series of fake traffic stops. A tenth person was detained as he was walking to a bus stop. After the detentions, family members discovered ace of spades cards — commonly known as “death cards” — left inside at least two abandoned vehicles. “We are outraged by how ICE carried out these detentions in Eagle County,” said Alex Sán

Immigrant families across Colorado’s Western Slope are facing a disturbing rise in immigration enforcement activity, including fake traffic stops, racial profiling, intimidation tactics, and detentions carried out without judicial warrants. Because Voces Unidas also provides emergency immigration legal aid in rural communities, these trends are not abstract. Families contact Voces Unidas when a loved one is detained, when a worker disappears on the way to a job site, or when

As a Mexican-American who oversees an immigrant-led civil rights organization in rural Colorado, I see every day the impact of foreign policy in our communities. Much of our work is done for those who are here because of instability that the United States has helped exacerbate. So I will state this plainly from a position of experience: A unilateral U.S. invasion and occupation of Venezuela is reckless, illegal under international law and guaranteed to intensify human sufferi

We knew 2025 would be difficult. And we can expect to face continued adversity in 2026. Yet, as we push forward to a future of unknown challenges, I feel compelled to pause and marvel at the resilience and generosity of this community – and to do so with deep hope and gratitude. With your support, Voces Unidas continues to make monumental strides in our transformational work to create a more equitable Colorado for all. From our home in the Western Slope to the Capitol Buildin

The new year brings a new legislative session in Colorado, and when the 2026 General Assembly convenes at the State Capitol in January, Voces Unidas will be there promoting policy solution important to rural Latino communities, as we have since 2021. The challenges currently facing rural Latinos require us to build on prior work and focus on strengthening protections for immigrants and working families across the state. While we will take positions on many proposed bills over

This past election, voters elected seven of the eight school board candidates endorsed by Voces Unidas Action Fund. Those leaders have now taken the oath of office and stepped into roles that carry enormous responsibility. They inherit school systems where Latino students continue to face deep, persistent achievement gaps compared to their white peers. Their mandate from our community is clear: move from rhetoric to results and transform our school districts into places where

The Colorado Latino Agenda (Voces Unidas and COLOR) and UnidosUS today released findings on where Latino voters stand one year ahead of the 2026 mid-term elections. Among Colorado latinos, there is continued economic anxiety and rising concern around immigration and law enforcement actions taking place across the country. Notably, 72% of respondents believe the nation is headed in the wrong direction.   The survey is part of the national  “Bipartisan Poll of Hispanic Voters

Voces Unidas joined UnidosUS , the nation’s largest Latino civil rights and advocacy organization in a virtual national press conference today to release new findings from The Bipartisan Poll of Hispanic Voters: The Road to 2026 , the most comprehensive national survey of Latino voters ahead of next year’s midterm elections. Conducted by BSP Research and Shaw & Company Research, the bipartisan poll surveyed 3,000 registered Latino voters with oversamples in Arizona, Californi

The events in Durango this week have had a profound impact on Colorado, particularly on the Western Slope. A normal school morning became a nightmare for the Jaramillo Patiño family. Early Monday, immigration officers pulled over a father driving his 15-year-old son and 12-year-old daughter to school and misidentified him as someone else. Instead of correcting the error and letting the children get to class, federal agents arrested and detained the dad and both kids. Agents

County Commissioners in Garfield and Mesa counties recently sent letters urging the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to move forward with more than 300 new oil and gas leases across Colorado—covering over 13,000 acres in Garfield County and another 700 acres in Mesa County. They claim these leases will bring “economic stability” and “support local services.” But what they’re really asking for is more drilling near our homes, schools, and neighborhoods—especially in areas where

On Sept. 16–18, 2025, Voces Unidas, in partnership with COLOR, held our third annual Latino Advocacy Day in Washington, DC—successfully elevating the needs of Latino communities in Colorado. The next step is action from our elected officials. For the third consecutive year, Voces Unidas and COLOR mobilized a Colorado delegation consisting of Latinas and Latinos from various counties in Colorado to advance policy change through direct engagement with members of Congress. The d

Voces Unidas today released its first School District Accountability Report Card for the Roaring Fork School District (RE-1), giving the...

Voces Unidas and COLOR will host a delegation of 15 participants and staff during our third annual national Latino Advocacy Day (LAD) on...