Voces Unidas stands with the community of Durango

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 held the family in the Durango ICE office for more than 36 hours. Then they transferred all three together to a detention center in Dilley, Texas, far from their mother, classmates, church community, and the local support network that keeps children grounded. 

Durango responded with heart and resolve. Neighbors, students, faith leaders, and community members gathered outside the ICE office to demand the family’s release and to protect children from further harm. Demonstrators remained peaceful. Federal agents did not; they escalated the situation, deploying pepper spray and rubber/foam rounds against people calling for kids to be safe. That kind of force is not public safety; it violates our community’s rights to assemble and speak, and it erodes trust in institutions meant to serve us.

Our communities deserve transparency and de-escalation, not projectiles and chemicals.

Throughout the week, Compañeros: Four Corners Immigrant Resource Center has kept our community informed by posting rapid updates, coordinating legal observers, gathering supplies, and offering language-accessible guidance. Their leadership reflects a broader reality: immigration enforcement continues across the Western Slope of Colorado, and our communities continue to feel the harm and trauma that comes with it.

As Voces Unidas, we stand with the community of Durango and with organizations like Compañeros, who are on the ground leading with courage and care. Children must never be collateral damage in immigration enforcement. Peaceful protesters must never be met with chemical agents or impact rounds.

We call on our federal delegation – both Democrats and Republicans – to hold ICE and DHS accountable and to demand the release of the Jaramillo Patiño family. 

To learn more about how you can support the Jaramillo Patiño family, visit the Compañeros website and social media pages. 

If one of your family members needs legal assistance, contact Voces Unidas at 970-340-8586. We provide a free legal consultation to any person in the Aurora detention center who is from the Western Slope.