WEEK OF FEBRUARY 20, 2025
VOLUME 80 | ISSUE 18
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Questions and answers about immigration law Trump policies, raids around Denver area spark concerns BY JENNIFER BROWN AND OLIVIA PRENTZEL THE COLORADO SUN
Rocky Mountain Metro Airport continues to attract critics over noise and air pollution.
Questions are swirling about how the Trump administration’s new immigration policies will continue to affect Colorado, especially after federal agents went door to door in Denver and Aurora on Feb. 5 detaining an unknown number of people. Could an immigration enforcement operation like the 2006 raid of a Greeley meatpacking plant that resulted in 262 arrests happen again? Would hiding in a church to avoid deportation, like Jeanette Vizguerra did during the last Trump administration, work now? Here are answers to some major immigration questions. FILE PHOTO
Neighbors lobby for tamer operations at RMMA Airport not as community- friendly as it was BY MONTE WHALEY MWHALEY@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
The Westminster City Council will tour Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport April 5 to quiz airport officials about operations at the expanding facility and answer questions posed by its critics. City Manager Jody Andrews talked briefly about the airport tour during a regular session of the city council. Councilors also mulled adding their names to a letter from the activist group Save Our Skies Alliance and sent to the Jefferson County Commissioners in February in an effort to tame air traffic at the airport. The group wants officials to add landing fees for all airport users – with exemptions for military, public safety and medical flights. Jefferson County –
which owns the airport – should also end the sale of leaded fuel for airplanes, limit touch-andgo operations at the airport and pause the construction of a new taxiway. The Westbrook Homeowners Association, representing 398 homeowners, have endorsed the letter. Westbrook is a neighborhood located in Westminster and Jefferson County but is outside of RMMA’s “are of influence,” said Carolyn Farbman, a Westminster resident and member of Save Our Skies Alliance. The alliance says the airport’s unfettered growth has fueled too much air traffic which leads to concerns from nearby residents over noise and environmental damage caused by airplanes using lead fuel. Farbman said Save the Skies Alliance does not want the airport shut-
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tered but wants officials to help tone down its operations. “Many residents have lived in the area for decades and can confirm significant change in RMMA’s traffic,” the Save Our Skies letter to the commissioner’s state. “The airport is no longer the community-friendly neighbor its once was.” The airport has seen a surge in flight school training, leading to increased noise, pollution, and heightened safety concerns for residents, the letter states. The airport master plan – which sets growth policies for the facility – was produced in 2011 and is outdated and “never envisioned RMMA becoming a large-scale, flight training center,” according to the letter. Operations – take off and landings – at RMMA in 2023 were 281,806, more than doubled since the master plan was
developed in 2011. The master plan predicted activity levels at the airport would be between 193,300 and 265,200 by 2030, Save Our Skies states. The group said the passage of HB24-1235, which aims to lessen aviation’s impacts on local communities, is a step in the right direction for RMMA. However, much more needs to be done to help communities deal with the impact of air traffic, activists say. Westminster Councilor Kristine Ireland said Monday the council should back the efforts of Save Our Skies to influence operations at the airport, which has taken millions in grants over the past 20 years. “That’s all taxpayer money,” Ireland said. “I think the neighbors there have a right not to have their quality of life ruined by the airport.”
Can local law enforcement arrest someone for their immigration status?
No. Under Colorado law passed in 2019, local law enforcement officers are not allowed to make an arrest or detain a person based solely on their immigration status or an ICE request. They also are barred under state law from notifying ICE about the immigration status of someone in their custody. However, if law officers arrest someone who has an ICE detainer, they can notify ICE when SEE ANSWERS, P32
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