Thread: Fiery debate in Greeley gives way to ICE

denver and the west
Fiery debate in Greeley gives way to ICE
Reactions are varied as the city prepares for a new office this fall.
By Monte Whaley
The Denver Post
Article Last Updated: 07/21/2008 12:47:11 AM MDT

The fiery rhetoric and protests of three years ago have been replaced with bitter acceptance that an Immigration and Customs Enforcement office will soon be operating in Greeley, a Latino activist said last week.

"It's like everybody is so tired, we fought against it for so long, and it's still coming," said Susanne Villarreal.

Others, however, are cheering the announcement last week that an ICE office is scheduled to be opened this fall in a building near Aims Community College. They say an influx of ICE agents into the city will finally stem the tide of illegal immigrants breaking laws in northern Colorado.

"This will really improve Greeley," said Joy Breuer, who runs the Greeley For God ministry. "When the bad guys who don't want to obey the laws see the ICE office open, they'll leave and go someplace else."

"I have mixed feelings about it," added Weld District Attorney Ken Buck. "I feel good it's coming but not so good we need it here."

ICE agents investigate immigration issues, and, in some cases, deport illegal immigrants back to their home countries.

Buck and Weld County Sheriff John Cooke began pushing for an ICE office for Greeley in 2005, saying illegal immigrants were responsible for several violent crimes in the area. Cooke also said housing foreign-born inmates in the Weld County Jail costs about $1.5 million a year.

Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., got an amendment attached to an appropriations bill for the Department of Homeland Security to fund a study to see if an ICE office was warranted in Greeley and Colorado Springs.

The 2007 study said an ICE office in both communities was justified. Allard is happy that the ICE facility will open in Greeley by October and in Colorado Springs early next year, said Allard chief of staff Sean Conway.

"I think if this office increases public safety by deterring people who come here from committing crimes, that's a good thing," Conway said.

The ICE office in Brush will close and those agents will move to Greeley, said Carl Rusnok, ICE regional spokesman. But he declined to say how many agents will work out of the Greeley office.

The facility will house only investigators and won't be used for detention, Buck said. "To most people, it will look like an insurance office," he said.

Some in Greeley decried moving an ICE office to the community, saying agents would use their enforcement powers to round up Latinos, those here legally and illegally.

They pointed to raids by ICE agents at JBS Swift & Co. plants in Greeley and elsewhere in December 2006 as examples of ICE agents uprooting and destroying families here to work.

"I think it's just a huge waste of taxpayer dollars," Villarreal said. Since the Swift raids, most illegal immigrants have left Weld County, making an ICE office a moot issue, she said.

"It doesn't make any sense; no one is here anyway," she said. "I just don't understand why ICE needs to be here."

Monte Whaley: 720-929-0907 or mwhaley@denverpost.com
http://www.denverpost.com/headlines/ci_9943490

"It doesn't make any sense; no one is here anyway," she said. "I just don't understand why ICE needs to be here."



It makes no sense? No illegals are there?

Then why did you spend so much time fighting AGAINST the facility opening?

"I think it's just a huge waste of taxpayer dollars," Villarreal said. Since the Swift raids, most illegal immigrants have left Weld County, making an ICE office a moot issue, she said.

Hey, I keep hearing that they're hiding in the shadows. If that's so, how do you know they aren't still lurking about? Furthermore, what makes you think they won't come back after the smoke clears?

she should change her name to Villa-Un-real

I think it's just a huge waste of taxpayer dollars," Villarreal said. Since the Swift raids, most illegal immigrants have left Weld County, making an ICE office a moot issue, she said.

Waste of tax payers dollars!! Well...most American citizens would rather have their tax dollars going to ICE than to some illegal invader (And her family of anchors), who's only mission in life is to procreate in order to fleece this country and its citizens!

Further, the illegals your trying to protect pay no income tax anyway, and if they do, it's through fradulent or stolen identifications. I suppose you would like them to be given credit for that as well. Right?