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What you should know about Medicaid and ICE
You may have received a notice or letter earlier this year from your clinic or hospital, alerting you that some of your information is possibly being shared with ICE. We know these notices have caused anxiety in the immigrant community so here are some things you should know. First, the notice you received is not about something that is happening at your clinic or hospital or healthcare provider. It does not mean your clinic is collaborating with ICE. Instead, the notices ar

Voces Unidas de las Montañas
2 days ago3 min read


Close the loopholes that let ICE operate in the shadows
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

Voces Unidas Action Fund
Mar 44 min read


Colorado must stand against Trump’s unchecked ICE force
Truth, we have learned, is short-lived. Facts can be fleeting. Reality is easily distorted. This is the world in which we live, the nation where the president threatens “the day of reckoning and retribution” and then proclaims innocence when it arrives with deadly certainty. Twice. Still, we have our own eyes. And the cameras are everywhere. So we know better than to believe that Alex Pretti, the man murdered by federal agents in the streets of Minneapolis last month, was a “

Alex Sánchez
Feb 195 min read


Not another dime for ICE
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

Voces Unidas Action Fund
Feb 161 min read


Accountability for Immigration Enforcement Abuses in Colorado
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

Voces Unidas Action Fund
Feb 22 min read


Letter to the Eagle County community
TO OUR COMMUNITY IN EAGLE COUNTY, Last week was difficult. ICE was active in our communities. At least nine people were detained, and ICE agents were seen near restaurants and hotels. The fear was real because what happened was real. From our office in Avon, we were answering calls as this unfolded. Family members called looking for loved ones. Workers and managers — Latino and non-Latino — called after seeing ICE with their own eyes outside their workplaces. Everyone was re

Alex Sánchez
Jan 251 min read


ICE left racist death cards to intimidate Latinos in Eagle County
This week in Eagle County, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) crossed a clear and dangerous line. After detaining 10 Latino community members, ICE agents left ace of spades cards—widely known as the “death card”—inside the abandoned vehicles. The cards, later found by family members, clearly identify ICE’s Denver Field Office. Card found by family The ace of spades has a long history as a tool of intimidation , from psychological warfare during the Vietnam War to its a

Voces Unidas Action Fund
Jan 221 min read


Confirmed ICE Activity in Eagle-Vail Valley
Blog was updated to reflect that at least 10 people were detained in Eagle County on January 21, 2026. Voces Unidas has confirmed that in early morning of Wednesday, January 21, 2026, ICE agents carried out a series of fake traffic stops on Highway 6 near Exit 171 (Minturn exit). ICE agents stopped four vehicles as those individuals were heading to work. These fake traffic stops resulted in the detention of eight community members. Another person was detained later that morni

Voces Unidas de las Montañas
Jan 212 min read


The true cost of invading Venezuela
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

Alex Sánchez
Jan 104 min read


Garfield County Jail may still be collaborating with ICE
In multiple cases, families say their loved one was ordered released or posted bond — but never walked out of the Garfield County Jail. Instead they were detained by ICE.

Voces Unidas de las Montañas
Jan 72 min read


Nationwide decision restores bond hearings for many immigrants
A federal court in California has issued a nationwide ruling that restores access to bond hearings for thousands of immigrants who entered the country without inspection and were not detained at the border. These are people the federal government has been holding without any opportunity to request release on bond. In the recent Maldonado Bautista decision, the court rejected the federal government’s policy and the Board of Immigration Appeals’ earlier framework known as Mat

Voces Unidas de las Montañas
Nov 26, 20252 min read


Federal court limits ICE warrantless arrests
A federal judge in Colorado has ruled that ICE cannot rely on blanket assumptions to justify warrantless arrests in our state. Under the decision, ICE officers must show probable cause of an immigration violation and provide specific evidence that the person is a flight risk before detaining someone without a warrant. The ruling responds to what many families have described for months: detentions carried out with little explanation and no individualized review. The court mad

Voces Unidas de las Montañas
Nov 26, 20251 min read


Meeting the moment for our community in the Western Slope
Across Colorado’s Western Slope and mountain region, immigrant families continue to live with uncertainty and fear. When ICE activity happens — often without warning — families are torn apart in an instant. People’s rights are violated, and those detained are forced to make life-altering decisions without access to legal counsel. Parents disappear on their way to work, leaving children and relatives to fend for themselves. The shock ripples through entire neighborhoods, leavi

Voces Unidas de las Montañas
Oct 13, 20252 min read


Supreme Court ruling allows racial profiling, enables federal agents, diminishes constitutional freedoms
Constitutional rights suffered a major blow this week when the U.S. Supreme Court essentially legalized racial profiling by government agents in the Los Angeles area – and potentially elsewhere – until further notice. By lifting a federal judge’s order prohibiting government agents from making immigration-related stops in the Los Angeles area based on “reasonable suspicion” as arbitrary as skin color, language spoken, job type, or even speaking English with an accent. Much li

Voces Unidas de las Montañas
Sep 10, 20252 min read


ICE detains longtime Colorado father after fake traffic stop
When Rafael would drive, his sons and family would joke that he drove too slow, like an old man. It was especially true when he would drive his work truck. So the red and blue lights with sirens on Monday morning were a surprise. Especially when the law enforcement officer who walked up to the vehicle said he had pulled him over for speeding. Still, Rafael handed over his driver’s license, thinking he was handing it to a local police officer. But as soon as the man in the bul

Voces Unidas de las Montañas
Aug 28, 20253 min read


The story of José and his deportation journey
José was dropped off in Chiapas, Mexico, on a Wednesday this month, about 2,000 miles away from his family’s hometown, with nothing but the clothes on his back. Those clothes were blood stained from the arrest, when he says ICE agents beat him. He had no money, and U.S. immigration officials had kept his Mexican identification and passport. His first order of business, after he was able to call his family to check in: finding a shelter and a new set of clothes that weren’t co

Voces Unidas de las Montañas
Aug 26, 20254 min read


Local Sheriff deputies suspected of doing ICE enforcement in Garfield County
Update: Luis has since been deported to Mexico. Voces Unidas formally filed a complaint with the Attorney General. This is now the tenth case Voces Unidas has documented of possible illegal collaboration between the Garfield County Sheriff's Office and ICE. When Luis Armando Rivas Martinez thought he was being followed by a silver car, he told his family, but tried to brush it off as nothing. But on Tuesday, June 3, while walking out of the WalMart in Glenwood Springs, the si

Voces Unidas de las Montañas
Aug 18, 20254 min read


Bond hearings in Routt County raise questions about ICE collaboration
Voces Unidas has unfortunately learned of two more cases that raise our suspicions that another local government agency could be...

Voces Unidas de las Montañas
Aug 13, 20252 min read


Concerns grow over reports of likely collaboration between local governments and ICE
Voces Unidas is following reported cases of law enforcement collaborating with ICE in possible violation of the law. In one of the most...

Voces Unidas de las Montañas
Aug 8, 20252 min read


Voces Unidas meets with U.S. Rep. Brittany Pettersen to update her on our communities
Voces Unidas on Wednesday joined Leadville-based nonprofit Full Circle in a meeting with Congresswoman Brittany Pettersen to share the...

Voces Unidas de las Montañas
Aug 8, 20252 min read
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