This will be a long post, but it’s worth reading. There are a lot of videos circulating from this event. We wanted to do our best to capture the full story, here it is.
It began quietly on a Monday morning in Durango, a mountain town known more for its historic railroad and hiking trails than for confrontation. A father and his two children (ages twelve and fifteen) were driving to school when unmarked vehicles pulled them over on a residential street. Witnesses later said they thought it was a traffic stop. It wasn’t. It was ICE. Agents detained the father on the spot. Within minutes, the two children were separated from him and taken into federal custody. By the time word reached the community, the family had vanished behind the walls of the local ICE holding facility, one of several small processing centers scattered across the Southwest.
By midday, Durango residents began to gather outside the ICE office on Turner Drive. Parents came with signs that read Families Belong Together. Students arrived from the nearby high school. Local pastors, immigrant-rights advocates, and teachers stood shoulder to shoulder in the October cold. What started as a vigil grew into a full-scale protest by afternoon. Organizers say their message was simple: release the children, reunite the family, and demand accountability. “We just wanted to make sure the kids were okay,” said one attendee. “They hadn’t eaten, and no one could get a straight answer about where they were.” Protesters formed a human chain at the entrance to the facility, a symbolic act, not a blockade. “We weren’t trying to fight anyone,” said another. “We just wanted them to know we were watching.”
Shortly before sunset, the tone changed. Federal agents from ICE and Homeland Security emerged from the facility wearing riot gear. Behind them stood members of the Colorado State Patrol and Durango Police Department. Cell-phone footage shows a tense standoff. Protesters chant, “Let them go!” while agents form a tight line. Without audible warning, pepper spray bursts into the crowd. One clip shows an officer spraying a protester in the face at point-blank range. Another video captures an agent ripping a phone from a woman’s hand before slamming her to the pavement. A 57-year-old woman can be seen being grabbed by the hair and thrown to the ground by a masked officer, footage that has since gone viral and prompted an official investigation.
“They just started pushing,” said a local nurse who was attending the rally. “People were screaming. They were spraying anyone who didn’t move fast enough. This was a peaceful protest and they treated it like a riot.” The violence wasn’t limited to ICE. According to witnesses and ACLU statements, Colorado State Troopers deployed rubber bullets. One protester was hit in the leg and required medical attention from volunteer medics. Others described being shoved to the ground by officers shouting federal commands. At one point, a firefighter from the Durango Fire Protection District appeared to assist law enforcement, a detail the department later said was “in support of public safety operations.” But to onlookers, it felt like every level of authority had aligned against them.
Inside the facility, the two children remained in custody. When local police attempted to check on their welfare and deliver food, ICE agents reportedly blocked entry. “They wouldn’t even let the police see the kids,” said one city official who spoke on condition of anonymity. “That’s when people realized how bad this had gotten.” By nightfall, the protest had scattered. Several demonstrators were treated for chemical burns and bruises. ICE vans drove away under escort. The children’s whereabouts remained unknown for nearly two days.
The next morning, the City of Durango issued a short statement: “We are aware of an incident involving federal immigration enforcement and local response agencies. We are reviewing the events and cooperating fully with oversight authorities.” But the community’s outrage didn’t fade. Local clergy held a press conference outside City Hall, condemning the use of force. “You don’t throw unarmed people to the ground for holding signs,” one pastor said. “You don’t pepper spray kids who are praying.” The ACLU of Colorado called for an independent investigation, citing possible violations of the protesters’ First Amendment rights and the state’s anti-collaboration laws limiting local cooperation with ICE. “The videos speak for themselves,” said ACLU attorney Rebecca Mejía. “This was a gross abuse of power, not just by ICE, but by every agency that enabled it.”
For many watching around the country, the Durango protest looked less like an isolated overreaction and more like part of a broader pattern: the federal government’s increasingly aggressive posture toward dissent. It came just days after Democratic congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh was indicted in Illinois following a similar immigration protest, an event critics already viewed as politically motivated. Now, with ICE once again at the center of a violent confrontation, the narrative of state retaliation against protest is gaining traction. Videos of the Durango incident have since gone viral, showing agents throwing people to the ground, spraying protesters at close range, and dragging one woman by the arms toward a van. “They called it a protest,” one attendee said later. “ICE treated it like a threat.”
In Durango, trust in law enforcement has eroded. Residents want answers: Who authorized the use of force? Why were the children detained at all? What role did local agencies play? And why did a peaceful protest in a small Colorado town end in chaos? As of now, federal officials have not released full details about the family or whether the children have been reunited with their parents. Local leaders are calling for transparency, accountability, and a full review of inter-agency conduct. Meanwhile, the people of Durango (teachers, parents, students) continue to gather nightly outside the ICE office, holding candles against the cold, demanding justice for a family they’ve never met but refuse to forget.
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