Pedro Gutierrez, 43, has lived in Durango for more than 22 years. On New Year’s Eve, he was pulled over during the day by federal agents near Needham Elementary School.
They called him by name and took him into custody on suspicion of being in the country without legal status. He is being held at a detention facility in Aurora.
According to the Durango Herald, Gutierrez’s daughter, 16, who was in the car during the stop, was left to drive herself home.
Gutierrez was not the only person detained by ICE in the Durango area last week. On January 2nd, Adelaide Lopez, a Mancos resident, was detained on Highway 160.
This arrest led to a protest outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office in Durango’s Bodo Industrial Park. Protesters linked arms and tried to block federal agents from leaving the field office with Lopez. The officers used pepper spray to move the protesters.
In October, ICE agents used pepper spray and rubber bullets on protesters at the same field office after Fernando Jaramillo Solano and his two children were detained by federal agents.
After being held and transported to Texas, the family requested to be voluntarily deported to Colombia.
