ICE finds fixer-upper new home in Greeley

GREELEY – A long-anticipated office of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement division of the federal Department of Homeland Security will finally open in Greeley in 2009.

The ICE office will be located in west Greeley at 4645 18th St. just east of the Aims Community College campus. Brett Hill, a partner in 18 West Ventures LLC that is leasing the space to ICE through the U.S. General Services Administration, said it was leased in late 2008 but won’t be ready to move into for several months because an addition to the existing one-story structure must first be built to accommodate ICE’s needs.

Hill said ICE needs about 10,000 square feet for its office but the building’s present configuration only offered about 5,000 square feet. “Our existing building with our existing tenants didn’t allow for the space they needed, so we’re adding another 5,000 square feet,” he said.

Hill estimated the expansion work will delay ICE’s move into the building for several months. “I would say it would probably be in the summer sometime,” he said.

Carl Rusnok, an ICE spokesman, said the Greeley location will be an “investigations” office, one of five types spread across the state.

“The office will be for investigations and be a branch office for our office of investigations in Denver,´ said Rusnok, speaking from Dallas. Rusnok said the local office would likely be involved in a variety of criminal activity investigations. “The office, at any given time, could be doing multiple types of investigations,” he said.

ICE agents converged on the former Swift packing plant in north Greeley in December 2006, arresting hundreds workers with false or stolen identification documents. The action was part of a six-state sweep of illegal workers in Swift plants.

The high-profile ICE raid brought an unwelcome spotlight to Greeley and heightened already tense relations between some Latino and Anglo residents.

Long time coming

While the 2006 raid raised awareness of illegal workers in Greeley, local Latino activists have been opposing the establishment of a local ICE office since 2005 with the formation of Latinos Unidos.

The group organized anti-ICE demonstrations and petitioned Colorado Senators Wayne Allard and Ken Salazar to oppose the office. But Allard became a strong supporter of the office before he left the Senate.

Sylvia Martinez, Latinos Unidos spokeswoman, said she was sorry to hear that an ICE office will finally be opening in Greeley. “I certainly hope that people remember the resistance and why there was such opposition from the Latino community,” she said.

“I see it as nothing but politics,” Martinez added. “Hopefully, Mr. Allard and Mr. Bush who requested the office will get their money’s worth.”

Former Greeley Mayor Tom Selders did not push for a local ICE presence, but his successor, Ed Clark, made it part of his election campaign. Clark said he’s glad the office is about to become part of the area’s law enforcement community.

“I think any time you have an opportunity to collaborate with federal, state and local officials it’s a good thing,” he said. Clark, a former detective with the Greeley police department, said he “absolutely” supports having an active ICE office in town.

“I want ICE here so we can target these illegal immigrants – the drug dealers and the rapists who are here illegally – and get rid of them,” he said. “I think it’s a legitimate safety concern.”

Clark said ICE agents are already working with Greeley and Weld County law enforcement officers even though the closest office is in Brush, about 60 miles to the east. “We’re allowing ICE officers to work out of the Greeley police department, so they’re already here,” he said.

“I can only imagine it will get better when (the ICE office) is up and running,” Clark added. “But we’re not waiting for other people to come here and make ourselves safer.”

Another view

Martinez said her group takes another view of ICE: that it will increase racial profiling in the area and exacerbate ongoing racial tensions in the city.

She pointed to a sweeping investigation of possible identity thefts announced in November by the Weld County District Attorney’s Office, Weld County Sheriff’s Office and Greeley Police Department as the latest instance of community division.

“It’s definitely not subsided any,” Martinez said. “Do I think (the ICE office’s presence) is going to cause division? Absolutely. I don’t see how it helps our community.”

ICE spokesman Rusnok said he could not comment as to how many ICE agents will work out of Greeley, but acknowledged the Brush office will close when Greeley begins serving Larimer, Weld, Morgan, Logan, Washington, Sedgwick, Phillips and Yuma counties.

Rusnok said the Greeley ICE office will put a high priority on arresting illegal immigrants who commit serious crimes in addition to enforcing employment and identify theft violations.

“Obviously, worksite enforcement is a big issue for us, but criminal aliens are our highest priority,” he said. “The emphasis is to go after those aliens that are the greatest threat to the public.”

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