Hickenlooper Condemns Shooting At Aurora ICE Detention Center

Shooting comes one day after Hickenlooper staff visited facility to conduct congressional oversight visit WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senator John Hickenlooper released the below statement responding to the shooting of a protester outside the Aurora ICE Detention Center by a GEO Group employee. The shooting came one day after Hickenlooper’s staff conducted a congressional oversight visit at the detention center. “ ICE and their contractors are completely out of control,” said Hickenlooper. “Everyone has the right to protest peacefully without fear of violence. We’re keeping the victim of this shooting in our thoughts, and we will keep fighting to end this lawlessness and instill accountability.” Hickenlooper has been outspoken in the face of ICE’s lawlessness and demanded a top-to-bottom overhaul of the agency to stop ICE from terrorizing our communities. Hickenlooper also voted against the DHS funding bill because it failed to overhaul ICE. He has consistently pushed for more oversight and transparency for federal immigration enforcement efforts, and has worked to help families desperately searching for loved ones arrested by ICE. In January, Hickenlooper spoke on the Senate floor to denounce the horrifying killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good, condemn the reports that families in Eagle County found “death cards” left in the cars of family members taken by ICE agents, and to demand the overhaul of ICE. He’s shown up at ICE facilities previously to conduct congressional oversight visits and raise concerns about ICE disregarding due process. He helped launch an investigation into ICE’s unlawful obstruction of congressional oversight and introduced bills to ban ICE from wearing masks, prevent immigration enforcement from targeting schools, hospitals, polling locations, and places of worship, and cut back the excessive funding that MAGA Republicans gave them. ###