Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network Stands with Our Community to Condemn Calls for Mass Deportation and Expose Harms of Immigration Detention and Deportation

Westminster, Colorado, October 10, 2024—Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network (RMIAN) strongly condemns the hateful and dishonest political rhetoric calling for mass deportations in our community. For the last twenty-five years, RMIAN has been a stalwart and trusted provider of legal services at the immigration detention center in Aurora, while simultaneously representing children and families in immigration proceedings in Colorado.

“Immigration detention and deportation operate in a hidden world. Every day, RMIAN’s attorneys, social workers, and advocates work alongside our clients, and see the deep pain of family separation, the dire and sometimes deadly consequences of medical neglect for people in immigration detention, and the egregious lack of due process for everyone in deportation proceedings. Expanding these harmful systems would devastate our community and our country,” says Mekela Goehring, Executive Director at RMIAN.

With a deep understanding of how immigration detention and deportation operate in our community, RMIAN knows that mass deportation would exponentially compound harm and create disastrous impacts for Colorado and beyond. According to a recent report by the American Immigration Council, a one time operation to deport undocumented immigrants would cost at least $315 billion, require the U.S. to expand immigration detention capacity by 24 times, and result in the deportation of 1 in 25 individuals in the United States. Projections estimate that mass deportation would lead to a loss of 4.2 percent to 6.8 percent of annual U.S. GDP, or $1.1 trillion to $1.7 trillion in 2022 dollars.

“We all agree that our immigration system needs to change. We need order at the border and a system of legal immigration that better reflects our collective needs and values,” says RMIAN Board Member Jorge Loweree, who is also the Managing Director of Programs at the American Immigration Council. “Mass deportation would come at an extreme cost to the government, devastate our economy, wreak havoc on communities, and terrorize immigrants and families that have been in the U.S. for more than a decade, on average.” 

“Policymakers should instead focus on increasing resources for our adjudication systems, reforming our system of legal immigration, and pursuing a path to permanent status for people who have been here for years,” said Loweree.  

RMIAN recognizes the tremendous contributions, strength and resilience of our immigrant community members, loved ones, colleagues, and clients.

RMIAN Board Member Doug Friesema, the pastor of Aurora First Presbyterian Church, reflects, “I have seen firsthand the power of immigration to bolster our communities. By inviting immigrants and all the gifts that they bring into our congregation we have found new life, new purpose, and new hope that our world might heal together. Because of the bonds we have formed with our neighbors from around the world we are able to feel the presence of God amongst us. Just this last Sunday, we celebrated World Communion Sunday in a combined service with two immigrant congregations who share the building with us. I have never seen our community so alive and full of commitment to serve our neighbors in love as when they are at our side.”

RMIAN Board Member, Dr. Janet Lopez, Senior Director of Policy, Partnerships & Learning at The Denver Foundation says, “Working within the Denver community, I see the incredible strength of our immigrant communities and the assets they bring to our state. I also see the kindness and generosity of my fellow Coloradans. We must invest in programs that make us stronger collectively, and bridge across lines of difference. RMIAN’s work to increase access and opportunity for communities of color is more important than ever, strengthening marginalized communities and creating a better Colorado for us all.”

Colorado is centered in the middle of our country and Aurora is in the heart of Colorado. The Aurora that RMIAN works in every day is a vibrant city enhanced by its incredible diversity, and an important contributor to our state’s prosperity and economy. It is also a dynamic example of the American dream, attracting new Americans who bring faith in a better future to our country. But within its boundaries is one of the nation’s largest immigration prisons, where 6-inch-thick doors boom as they slam and the sound of guards’ keys clink as they walk through the windowless halls.

RMIAN’s Director of Advocacy & Litigation, Laura Lunn, explains, “Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) steals away longtime residents–students, caregivers, and breadwinners–leaving their loved ones stranded without their support systems. People who survived atrocities and fled for their lives, from places like Ukraine, South Sudan, Venezuela, and Palestine, are imprisoned. Right now, over a thousand people sit and wait for a judge to listen to their case and most of them will appear in court alone. At RMIAN, we strive to fill gaps that exist in our immigration system to ensure that people have access to due process, fairness, and justice. But more than that, we provide a sense of care and community for people held within the detention center because those are traits that Coloradans value no matter where you are within our state.”

RMIAN Founding Board Member Hiroshi Motomura and UCLA law professor explains, “Any call for mass deportations is profoundly troubling. Three reasons deserve special mention. First, mass deportations will cause lasting damage to communities in Colorado and throughout the United States, tearing apart families and targeting the workers who make sure we have food, take care of our children, and provide essential health care. Second, calling for mass deportations sends the corrosive message that US citizens who are the family members, neighbors, and employers of noncitizens don’t count, that it’s ok to marginalize them. Third and most fundamentally, calling for mass deportations is not a serious proposal to fix a broken system. Instead, it’s a simple-minded fix for political gain and an attempt to sow divisions in this country by scapegoating.”

For almost three decades, RMIAN’s clients have been the heroes in all of our work. RMIAN’s clients have elevated the mistreatment and dangers they have faced in immigration detention and through deportation proceedings in order to shed light on these injustices and hopefully prevent them from happening to others in the future. We now call on our community members to stand up against hatred and stand with our community.