Chuds on Parade: Meet Trump’s Cabinet
President Trump’s cabinet is riddled with Klan-like nationalists, conspiracy theorists and xenophobes.
Tag: Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Vigil at GEO ICE Detention Center in Aurora Spreads Love to Immigrants
Aurora, CO — On the evening of February 10, community members gathered for a vigil outside the for-profit GEO ICE Detention Center in Aurora, Colorado “to honor and spread love to immigrants” inside the facility. The event is called “Love Knows No Borders! No Walls!”…
Coloradans Rally at State Capitol to Support Immigrants and Protest Mass Deportations
Denver, CO — For the second time this week, Coloradans showed up in large numbers to protest the Trump administration’s policies, including the escalated rate of arrests and deportations occurring across the country due to the 10 executive orders President Trump signed on inauguration day…
ICE is Training Civilians to Conduct Violent Raids on Immigrants
New details about a program from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) are getting attention after the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) published a trove of internal documents about ICE’s ‘Citizens Academy’ programs. The academy trains civilians to operate multiple firearms,…
Tech Workers Rise Up: Organizing Google’s Worldwide Worker Walkout
Cambridge, MA — At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on December 11, 2018 an open forum titled, “#MeToo and Workers’ Power: Building Solidarity at Google and Beyond,” covered the inner workings of the global Google walkout of 20,000 employees and contractors in 2018.
Hosted by…
Indigenous Climate Activist Victor Puertas Remains in Custody Despite No Indictment
Lumpkin, GA — It has been almost five months since Victor Puertas was arrested at the South River Music Festival in DeKalb County, GA on March 5, and even though no evidence has been levied against him, he has been behind bars ever since. Throughout…
Protests Against Anti-Immigrant Laws to Continue
Recent protests and boycotts in response to anti-immigrant legislation in Florida are having lasting impacts on communities upheld by undocumented immigrants. The June 1st labor strikes coordinated by Latino organizers on TikTok made a statement not just on the seriousness of the immigration debate but…
🦄 COVID-19
Demands Reignite for Releases from GEO ICE Jail Amid New Covid Outbreak
Aurora, CO – Nineteen new COVID-19 cases were reported on September 30 at the GEO Group’s privately-owned and operated Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) jail. Published in the most recent accountability report by the office of Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO6), this COVID-19 outbreak is the…
Reports of Forced Sterilizations in ICE Facility Spark Protest
Minneapolis, MN – Nearly a hundred people gathered in South Minneapolis to protest recent revelations of non-consensual hysterectomies sterilizing detained immigrant women in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody in Georgia.
Unicorn Riot was live for most of the protest at the Emiliano Zapata…
🦄 Prison
GEO Group’s ICE Jail Lies to Immigration Lawyer, Attempts Unlawful Deportation
Aurora, CO — On the morning of June 30, 2020, Pablo Mackleen Grijalva’s lawyer tried to contact him at the GEO Group’s ICE jail where he is detained, but to her shock, the officer on the phone told her he was not there. She immediately…
🦄 COVID-19
Encampment to ‘Free Them All’ Outside GEO ICE Detention Center
Aurora, CO – An encampment outside the GEO Group’s ICE detention facility in Colorado sprung up on Saturday evening, May 23, with the demand: free them all. The camp-out is in direct response to an announcement by the Tri-County Health Department on May 21 stating…
🦄 Prison
New Year, New Outbreaks: Detainees at GEO Group’s Colorado ICE Facility Face More Quarantines
Aurora, CO – Since February 20, 2020, a total of 141 detainees remain quarantined due to outbreaks of the flu and mumps at the sole Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility in Colorado, privately owned and operated by GEO Group. This facility is currently…
Another Immigrant Claims Sanctuary from Deportation in Colorado
Denver, CO – Like others who have claimed sanctuary from deportation, Jorge Araiza Ávila decided to skip his appointment with an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official on December 10, 2019, and instead, took refuge at Park Hill United Methodist Church and Temple Micah. On…
Immigrant Rights Advocates Rally in Response to Rotten Food Given to Detainees
Aurora, CO – Two days into the New Year, Jeanette Vizguerra received a distraught phone call from Dennis Hernández who is a detainee inside the GEO Group’s ICE detention facility in Aurora. Hernández told Vizguerra that he among other detainees had received rotten food two…
Icebreaker Pt 10 – Leaked ICE Agent Private Bill and Commercial Trade Fraud Investigation Handbooks
United States – Unicorn Riot obtained hundreds of pages of leaked ICE agent manuals. ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) has a broad jurisdiction that includes both immigration and customs-related law enforcement.
Two areas that HSI works in are “private bill” and “commercial trade fraud” investigations.…
🦄 Police
Icebreaker Pt 9 – Leaked Interrogation and Arrest ICE Manuals
United States – Unicorn Riot obtained confidential Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent policy manuals. Icebreaker part 9 covers several handbooks: arrest procedures, interviewing techniques, live and photographic lineups, and psychophysiological detection of deception (also known as polygraphs).
These relatively brief manuals provide key details about…
Ingrid Encalada Latorre Pardoned After 2+ Years Claiming Sanctuary
Boulder, CO – Colorado Governor Jared Polis, on Monday, pardoned undocumented mother Ingrid Encalada Latorre, among others. Encalada Latorre has been claiming sanctuary at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Boulder for more than two years, and in September she gave birth to her third child…
Icebreaker Pt 8 – Leaked ICE Handbooks for T and U Visa Application Investigations
United States – Unicorn Riot obtained confidential Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent policy manuals. Icebreaker Pt 8 covers ICE’s T and U visa application agent handbooks – covering the particular classes of U.S. residency visas that help victims of crimes and human trafficking.
In recent…
Icebreaker Pt 7 – ICE Case Management Handbook Based on Federal Law Enforcement “System of Systems”
United States – Unicorn Riot obtained confidential Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) policy manuals in 2017. Icebreaker Part 7 covers ICE’s “Case Management Handbook” which was in effect between 2008 and 2016. The handbook is closely based on a critical database structure called the Treasury…
The Price to Oversee ICE: 200+ Protesters March in Aurora Suburb Home to GEO Group ICE Warden
Aurora, CO – On September 19, 2019, as the sun set over the suburban home of Johnny Choate, CEO and warden of the GEO Group’s local ICE detention facility, more than two hundred community members gathered with signs, banners, and musical instruments to condemn the…
Hundreds in CO Plan Rally to ‘Close the Concentration Camps’
Aurora, CO – As part of an international call to action by multiple coalitions of social justice and human rights groups, a vigil and march is planned for Friday, June 12, outside the GEO Group’s ICE Detention facility in Aurora.
Watch our live coverage below:…
CO Community Gathers Outside GEO ICE Facility on Longest Day of Year
Aurora, CO – Friday marks the summer solstice, which is the longest day of the year. Often the solstice is an especially dangerous day for those who are walking through the desert along the U.S.-Mexico border in search of relief in the United States. Community…
Military and Militias Deploy to US/Mexico Border to Confront Caravan of Asylum Seekers
President Donald Trump has deployed thousands of active-duty soldiers to the US/Mexico border to support the Department of Homeland Security in stopping a caravan of Central American migrants from seeking asylum in the United States.
A plan enacted on October 26, called “Operation Faithful Patriot“,…
Occupy ICE Denver Camps Outside GEO ICE Detention Center
Aurora, CO – On Sunday evening, immigrant rights and social justice advocates began setting up tents and tarps outside one of the biggest privately-owned ICE Detention Facilities in the country. This detention facility in Aurora is operated by the prison company GEO Group and has…
#OccupyICE Movement Grows Momentum in Colorado
Centennial, CO – On the morning of Thursday, August 2, 2018, after sustaining an #OccupyICE encampment vigil for almost four days, eight advocates blockaded the two main driveway entrances to the ICE Denver Field Office. Using PVC pipes to connect their arms, the eight participants,…
ICE Occupation Emerges at Denver Field Office
Centennial, CO – In the evening of Sunday, July 29, 2018, a coalition of many local immigrant rights and social justice groups gathered outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Denver Field Office to hold an encampment vigil.
Watch our live coverage below from Monday…
“Tech Won’t Build It: The New Tech Resistance” Discussion Panel
Cambridge, MA – Workers in the technology sector have organized in recent weeks to compel the companies they work for to drop controversial projects, part of a growing movement dubbed “The New Tech Resistance”. In June, Google engineers organized to close the Project Maven contract,…
Icebreaker Pt. 5 – Confidential Homeland Security Undercover Operations Handbook
Washington, DC – As the Trump administration’s immigration policies continue to generate escalating backlash, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has come under increasing scrutiny. Journalists, senators, and others attempting to learn more about the agency’s practices have been frequently turned away and/or had their requests…
Icebreaker Pt 4 – Homeland Security Special Agent On-the-Job Training Manual
Unicorn Riot obtained a series of Homeland Security Investigations policy manuals. Part 4 of the Icebreaker series of stories covers the 2008 version of the special agent training program, shedding light on the overall architecture of the Department of Homeland Security and how it instills…