U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions are in full swing across the country, with operations capturing more than 4,000 immigrants unlawfully living in the U.S. in the days since President Donald Trump was sworn in last week.

It is yet unknown how many operations have occurred in Colorado. ICE officials did not respond to emails seeking comment Monday. 

So far, the focus in Colorado has been to cripple the operations of an international gang that’s been trying to sink its tentacles in metro Denver. 

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s Rocky Mountain Field Division executed a search warrant in the wee hours on Sunday at a “makeshift nightclub” in Adams County, detaining 49 individuals. Of those, 41 were unlawfully residing in the U.S., federal officials said.

The operation stemmed from an investigation — begun under the Biden administration and executed under Trump — into the Venezuelan prison gang known as Tren de Aragua, or TdA, and into drug trafficking activities.

TdA rose to prominence last year after taking over a rundown apartment complex in Aurora. City officials responded by shuttering Aspen Grove, evicting about 300 people. 

Trump’s executive order expediting removals allows ICE agents to conduct operations anywhere in the U.S.

Previously, these operations were limited to within 100 miles of the U.S. border. Under the order, the expedited removal also applies to individuals who have been in the U.S. for up to two years.

Immigration attorney: Carry identification documents

ICE agents have captured 4,170 immigrants believed to be unlawfully residing in the United States since Jan. 23.

Violeta Chapin, an immigration attorney and University of Colorado Boulder law professor, suggested that immigrants carry their driver’s license, lease, tax return or other documents with them that show the length of time they have been in the U.S.

Immigrants and advocates — Chapin cautioned — should be aware that ICE warrants are administrative in nature and differ from a warrant signed by a judge.

“Administrative warrants do not give ICE agents the authority to come into your house,” Chapin said.

She advised people to ask to the see the warrant.

“The vast majority of ICE warrants are not going to be signed by a judge,” Chapin said.

‘Immigrant is not a race, it’s a status’

ICE officials began announcing the agency’s daily enforcement actions on X, formerly Twitter, two days after Trump signed a flurry of executive orders ranging from foreign aid to energy to immigration.

Some of Trump’s executive orders are having an immediate impact, while others will likely be challenged in court.

Colorado, for example, is one of 22 states that have filed a lawsuit challenging an executive order that instructs the federal government not to recognize children born in the U.S. to parents who were either illegally living in the U.S. or on a temporary status, such as on a tourist visa.

On one side of that argument, critics of Trump’s order maintain that birthright citizenship is a bedrock principle of the U.S. and enshrined in the Constitution, which guarantees citizenship to children born in the U.S., regardless of their parents’ immigration status.

The other side of that argument says that understanding is flawed and a misinterpretation of the Constitution’s “Citizenship Clause,” insisting birthright citizenship has no basis in either the text, the history of the clause or in the political theory underlying it.

Last week, a U.S. district judge issued a temporary restraining order halting implementation of the executive order, calling it “blatantly unconstitutional.”

Trump was sworn in two days before the ICE operations began, promising to conduct mass deportations the likes of which the United States has never before seen. On the campaign trail, Trump had vowed to start his campaign in Aurora, which was thrust into the national spotlight of the illegal immigration debate after a Venezuelan gang began terrorizing residents in a few rundown apartment complexes.

With roughly 1.4 million final deportation orders in the U.S. — and thousands in Colorado — the public will likely see many more operations, said John Fabbricatori, a former ICE field office director.

“We’re just going to enforce immigration law,” Fabbricatori said.

He added: “Immigrant is not a race, it’s a status.”

‘Give people information, not spread panic’

Trump’s promised mass deportation program — dubbed “Project Aurora” — has a lot of community members on edge, according to advocates.

Raquel Lane-Arellano, who has volunteered to answer the Colorado Rapid Response Network’s hotline for the past five years, said she has never received a call on the hotline until Sunday.

“This is the first time I’ve ever had calls and it’s been nonstop,” Lane-Arellano said.

Formed during Trump’s first administration, the organization is a statewide network that responds to ICE operations with legal observers, according to the group’s website.

While the Colorado Rapid Response Network has confirmed just a single ICE operation since Trump assumed office, the group reported 38 raids in the state since June of 2017.

Lane-Arellano cautioned against posting sightings on social media without confirming an operation.

“We want to be able to give people information, not spread panic,” Lane-Arellano said.

Early Monday morning, a lone protester stood in front of the Jim Bailey Building, the local ICE headquarters in Centennial, imploring agents and others to consider “kindness” in light of stepped-up federal efforts to deport immigrants unlawfully living in the U.S.

“We should think about what the Statue of Liberty says,” Candice Rutledge said. “I’m concerned, with all of this deportation, that a lot of due process is getting swept under the rug.”

Congressman: Trump is cleaning up ‘sanctuary state and crime mess’ 

The response to the immigration enforcement divided people along ideological and party lines.

In an interview on CNN, Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser also praised the drug enforcement action taken Sunday, but he cautioned that immigration raids could separate families and harm the state’s economy. 

“What concerns me a lot right now, Brianna (Keilar), is the mass, indiscriminate roundups,” Weiser said told CNN. “Even citizens get rounded up.”

U.S. Rep. Gabe Evans, who won Colorado’s 8th Congressional District last November, lauded the DEA and ICE raids in Adams County on Sunday.

“We’re only one week into the Trump Admin and already seeing how strong immigration policies make #CO08 a safer place to raise a family and pursue the American Dream,” he said on X. 

“Better federal immigration policies are cleaning up Colorado’s sanctuary state and crime mess,” he earlier said. “Strong law enforcement makes for safe communities.”

Nationwide operations

ICE agents launched operations across the country.

In California, ICE notified the San Jose Police Department that it was carrying out an operation on Sunday. Details of the operation were not immediately clear.

Federal agents also rounded up immigrants unlawfully living in South Florida over the weekend.

Following the first wave of deportations under the Trump administration last week, newly-appointed border czar Tom Homan said, “If you’re in the country illegally, you’re on the table.”

In an ABC News segment released Sunday, Homan defended a policy change to allow ICE agents to raid “sensitive locations,” including schools, hospitals and churches.

The border czar said federal agents are currently concentrating on “national security threats and public safety threats” as the first priority, but the country can expect to see the number of deportations “steadily increase” as the “aperture” opens to include everyone in the country illegally.

“The message needs to be clear that there’s consequences to entering the country illegally,” said Homan, when asked if agents would enter schools to arrest adults or kids outside of public safety or national security threats. “If we don’t show those consequences, you’re never going to fix the border problem.”

Denver Gazette Reporter Deborah Brigsby Smith and the Associated Press contributed to this report.