AFSC Colorado

Quaker calls for reform, not deportations, in Colorado

Judy Danielson, a Colorado Quaker, joins the March 5, 2012 vigil outside the GEO immigrant detention center in Aurora, Colorado.

ICE Steps Up Presence at the Aurora, Colorado Jail, Requests Summons Data; Surge in Detention and Deportation Expected

Community and faith groups demand an end to ICE’s rogue tactics

Valentine drop-off at GEO Detention Center in Aurora CO Feb 2012

CFIR members Sister Alicia Ramirez (left) and Maureen Flanigan (right) present Rachel Lovero (center), the GEO Recreation Specialist, with 525 handmade Valentines for the immigrants unjustly interned by the state at the GEO Detention Center in Aurora, Colorado.

By Jordan Garcia, AFSC Colorado Immigrant Ally Organizing Director

On February 13, 2012 at the Aurora (Colorado) Immigrant Detention Center, 525 handmade Valentines were delivered to 450 people unjustly interned by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The next day, Valentine's Day, an additional 75 cards were gifted to day laborers in Denver and Aurora thanks to volunteers with Coloradoans for Immigrant Rights, a project of AFSC.

Jordan Garcia and Boulder Friends 1-15-12

Jordan Garcia (standing, in blue shirt) visits with Boulder Friends during an AFSC-led program examining Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s call to work against injustice. Jordan is Immigrant Ally Organizing Director for AFSC in Colorado.

The Boulder (Colorado) Meeting of Friends hosted AFSC Colorado staff Jennifer Piper and Jordan Garcia for an interactive program to honor Martin Luther King, Jr. Day this year. Jennifer and Jordan reflected on the words of Dr. King and his "commitment to and belief in the intersections of injustice and liberation."

Clergy Witness Network at Prayer Circle in Denver 12-15-11

Members of the Clergy Witness Network, organized by AFSC in Colorado, join a prayer circle with immigrant youth from Metro Organizations for People at the capitol in Denver on December 15, 2011.

By Jennifer Piper, AFSC Colorado Interfaith Organizing Director

[Crystal Middlestadt is a member of the letter writing ladder of Coloradoans for Immigrant Rights, a project of AFSC in Colorado. Her letter below appeared in the December 2, 2011 edition of The Denver Post in response to a November 28 Post editorial.]

Art Way

Art Way is Drug Policy Manager for the Drug Policy Alliance.

By Gabriela Flora, AFSC Regional Project Voice Organizer

The criminalization of immigrants continues to reach new heights and enforcement programs expand and justify themselves in the mainstream by saying they are going after “criminals.” Members of Coloradoans for Immigrant Rights, a project of AFSC, have been having some intense discussion on challenging this view that it is ok to target and deport people labeled as “criminals.”