ICE showdown tensions escalated Thursday after Denver Mayor Mike Johnston signed an executive order directing city authorities to detain any ICE agent who “assaults or shoots or kills” civilians. The order marks a sharp clash between local leadership and federal immigration enforcement.
Standing on the steps of the city government’s plaza, Johnston declared, “To protect Denver, our first responders will always provide life-saving aid to anyone who is injured, no matter who injured them.” He added, “No ICE officer gets to stand in our way of saving someone’s life. 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 federal agents should be held to the same standard as city police officers.
“Regardless of what the federal government does, we will not abdicate our responsibility to prosecute crimes in our city,” Johnston said. He also stated he would not abide “abduction[s]” of residents, adding that “no one will have to worry if their dad will be abducted when he heads to the store.”
The order was drafted by city attorney Michiko “Miko” Brown. Johnston referenced her family’s history of Japanese American internment during World War II while speaking near the courthouse named for former Colorado Gov. Ralph Carr, who opposed internment policies in 1942.
The move follows heated rhetoric in Philadelphia, where District Attorney Larry Krasner labeled ICE agents “a small bunch of wannabe Nazis” and warned, “if we have to hunt you down the way they hunted down Nazis for decades, we will find your identities.” That comment prompted Rep. Greg Steube (R-FL) to request a federal investigation.
