Thousands of people took to the streets in Denver on Wednesday and Saturday last week in response to a series of raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. The protests were held in solidarity with undocumented immigrants and against President Donald Trump’s immigration policies.

Amanda Starks, a local artist at Saturday’s rally who has been distributing legal rights literature to immigrants, said: “We’re here to fight for our neighbors, to stand together and say no to the threats from the Trump administration.” She added: “I think this is worse than in 2016, when we thought the GOP would stand up to Trump. Now they’re all Christian nationalist yes-men, and we’re up against something greater this time around. But it’s bringing this community together.”

President Trump has focused on Colorado as part of his immigration enforcement efforts, naming his deportation plan for alleged gang members “Operation Aurora” after a Denver suburb. Conservative media outlets have echoed his claims that the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua (TdA) has “taken over” the area, despite limited evidence supporting this narrative.

On his first day in office, Trump signed an executive order cutting funding and issuing a stop-work order to the Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network (RMIAN), a nonprofit that provides free legal services to undocumented immigrants in Colorado. The state has one of the lowest rates of legal representation for undocumented individuals due to the high volume of people in need.

Last week, heavily armed SWAT teams conducted early morning raids on apartment complexes in Denver and Aurora. Some raids were accompanied by a Fox News crew. ICE reported 30 arrests, but only one confirmed gang member was taken into custody.

With approximately 155,000 undocumented immigrants in Colorado, local residents have mobilized to offer support. Despite its setbacks, RMIAN was able to provide an immigration law crash course to 100 attorneys who volunteered their services despite not specializing in immigration law.

During ICE raids, volunteers from groups like the Immigrant Legal Resource Center distribute literature outlining the legal rights of those being targeted. At Saturday’s rally outside the Colorado State Capitol, activists led a call-and-response chant providing legal advice. One activist prompted the crowd with, “When ICE shows up?” to which the crowd responded, “Don’t open the door!”

Starks and others have been attending weekly gatherings at a local Methodist church to discuss ways to support immigrants legally. One organizer estimated that more than 1,500 people attended a meeting on Monday.

Many activists at the rally criticized CBZ Management, a New York-based property management company that oversees multiple properties in Aurora and Denver. Some of these properties have been fined or shut down for poor living conditions. In August, Zev Baumgarten of CBZ Management claimed that one of their Aurora apartment buildings had been overtaken by TdA gang members, preventing necessary repairs and services. The Aurora mayor referred to Baumgarten as “an out-of-state slumlord.”

Trump repeated these claims during his presidential debate against Kamala Harris weeks later, bringing national attention to Aurora despite Colorado’s history as a Democratic stronghold since 2008.

For decades, Colorado has cultivated a reputation for welcoming immigrants, particularly those crossing the US-Mexico border. In the 1990s, as national politics shifted rightward on immigration, Denver’s mayor, Wellington Webb, pushed back. In a 1998 executive order, he criticized federal immigration crackdowns, stating that Denver “would welcome all to share in Denver’s warm hospitality.” He added: “We must respect this diversity and ensure the rights of all our residents are protected,” and affirmed that Denver “would not tolerate discrimination in any form.”

During this period, conservative anti-immigration activism also gained traction in Colorado. Congressman Tom Tancredo, who served from 1999 to 2009, built his political career on opposition to immigration, criticizing Denver libraries for carrying Spanish-language books, calling for the deportation of a Denver high school student, pushing to strip “sanctuary cities” of federal funding, and warning against the “cult of multiculturalism.” His campaigns for president and governor helped shape the anti-immigration rhetoric that later became central to the Make America Great Again movement.

Despite last week’s protests, Colorado still has strong conservative pockets. Representative Lauren Boebert, a Trump loyalist, remains in office. Recently, she joined two other Colorado representatives in pressuring Democratic Governor Jared Polis to repeal state laws protecting immigrants. Although Polis has been described as a “Democratic libertarian,” he has endorsed key elements of Trump’s deportation plan.

At Saturday’s rally, protesters chanted: “Hey Polis, where are you? We have courage, how about you?” as they marched through downtown Denver before returning to the Capitol, where organizers distributed legal information and announced future gatherings.

Katie Leonard, a speaker at the rally and an organizer with the Party for Socialism and Liberation, described the importance of community readiness in response to ICE raids. The organization has been tracking and publicizing raid locations on social media. “We take these threats [from Trump] very seriously,” she said. “But the decisive factor in what happens here, when these ICE raids come and indiscriminately round up people, is whether the community is prepared, whether the people know their rights.”