On July 14th, Denver Justice Project joined dozens of organizers, advocates, and community members from across Colorado for the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition’s (CIRC) regional meeting, hosted by the Velverde Neighborhood Association. As a proud CIRC member organization, we consider this coalition one of our most vital strategic partnerships. Abolishing the carceral state and building community care over cages is not work that can be done alone. Coalition is the strategy, not just a supplement to it.

With ICE escalating its attacks on Brown and immigrant communities across the country — and right here in Denver — the urgency of this work has never been clearer. Below is a recap of what we learned, discussed, and committed to together.

The meeting brought together CIRC and partner organizations including Spring Institute, Denver Justice Project, East Colfax Community Collective, Aurora Unidos, COLOR Latina, and Shut Down GEO, among many others not captured in our notes. The Velverde Neighborhood Association also shared that they’ll soon be launching a mobile food bank

Legislative Updates

CIRC gave the coalition a grounded update on the state of play in Colorado:

  • HB-1276, which created oversight for private immigration detention centers, passed and remains in effect while it’s litigated between the Attorney General and GEO Group, who sued to block enforcement.
  • SB-05, which would have required law enforcement to identify themselves, passed the legislature but was vetoed by Governor Polis.
  • Omni Salud and Cover All Coloradans — health insurance programs for low-income undocumented people and for undocumented and pregnant people, respectively — remain in place, but funding cuts have shrunk the program to just 6,700 lottery spots. CIRC advocated hard in the legislature to minimize these cuts.
  • SB26-121, which CIRC opposed, passed and raises the number of hours farmworkers must work before qualifying for overtime.

What’s on the Ballot

Two ballot measures are on our radar heading into this cycle:

Amendment 81 (formerly Initiative 95) would require state and local law enforcement to notify DHS when someone is charged with a crime and believed to not be lawfully present in the US — a direct conflict with existing Colorado law. CIRC opposes this amendment and is actively building coalition around it. An informational event is being planned for September 25 (date to be finalized).

Graduated Income Tax / Protect Colorado’s Future is currently in its signature-gathering phase.

Regional Campaigns: Flock Off and Shut Down GEO

Two campaigns anchored much of the day’s discussion. The proposed MOU with the Aurora Police Department did not pass — a real win worth celebrating. But the fight to shut down the GEO-run Aurora detention center continues, and the coalition doesn’t have illusions about what’s coming:

  • The Hudson facility will likely open within the next month, since GEO is required to make it operational within 30 days of receiving funding.
  • ICE is expected to sign a new contract with GEO for the Aurora detention center. ICE issued a call for proposals on July 10, with responses due July 17, seeking additional detention beds within 30 miles of local field offices in Colorado, Pennsylvania, Washington, and Florida. Renewing the Aurora contract is the only way ICE can guarantee beds within 30 miles of the Centennial field office — which is exactly why our organizing has to keep pressure on this contract.

Coalition Building and Regional Vision

CIRC’s Statewide Assembly will be held virtually this year, and any member of a CIRC partner organization is encouraged to attend. The coalition also holds monthly statewide calls, with another regional in-person meeting planned for winter.

A highlight of the day was a small-group exercise where participants imagined what regional vision and infrastructure should look like across Colorado. Themes that came up again and again:

  • Language accessibility at public meetings needs to be the default, not an accommodation.
  • Aurora base-building is a priority — Denver has strong mobilization capacity, but other communities across the Denver metro area are too often left out of that momentum.
  • Rural and mountain community connection — organizers agreed that Denver-metro organizations need to be building relationships with rural and mountain communities to strengthen a truly statewide movement, not a Denver-centric one.

Upcoming Training Opportunity

Midwest Academy is hosting an “Organize for Justice” (Organizando para la Justicia) training at CIRC’s Denver office from September 28 through October 1. The training will be conducted in Spanish and is designed for monolingual Spanish-speaking community members looking to build their organizing skills. Scholarships are available for CIRC members, if you know someone who wants to grow as an organizer, encourage them to reach out to [email protected].

Grounding Ourselves in Community and Spirit

Not all the day’s work happened around a table. The group took time for sun printing and to build a shared altar, activities that gave everyone space to create, connect with the earth, and hold intention together. Participants offered items to the altar representing themselves and their work, “feeding” it to carry that intention through the rest of the day. In a movement that asks so much of its people, these moments of grounding matter just as much as the strategy sessions.

Why This Matters for Our Work

Denver Justice Project shows up to spaces like this because abolition isn’t a slogan, it’s a practice built through relationships, shared analysis, and collective strategy. As ICE escalates its attacks on our communities, our power to resist grows directly out of coalitions like CIRC has built, where organizations across the state show up for each other, share information honestly, and build toward a shared vision of community care over cages.

Thank you to CIRC and the Velverde Neighborhood Association for hosting this gathering, and to every organizer in the room who is doing this work with care, culture, and courage. We’ll keep showing up and we hope you will too.

Interested in getting involved with Denver Justice Project’s immigrant rights and abolition work? [Reach out to us]CONTACT US to learn how to plug in.