Editor’s Note: All opinion section content reflects the views of the individual author only and does not represent a stance taken by The Collegian or its editorial board. Letters to the Editor reflect the view of a member of the campus community and are submitted to the publication for approval. This letter was submitted by a group of individuals who were granted anonymity by The Collegian on the basis of fear of retaliation.
The Colorado State University Police Department assisted and protected an agent of United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement on campus on Thursday, Oct. 1. We, three concerned CSU students and workers who were on site that day, are unwilling to let it go unnoticed.
At around 8 a.m. Thursday morning, a concerned person called the Colorado Rapid Response Network to report suspected ICE activity on CSU’s campus. Minutes later, we arrived and discovered a Chevy Tahoe with heavily tinted windows parked a few dozen yards from the Lory Student Center.
Inside the vehicle, we saw the silhouette of a man watching passing students and staff with a pair of binoculars. He wore a tactical vest and a mask up to his eyes. His vehicle was unmarked, and the tint was nearly impossible to see through. We approached the vehicle and repeatedly gestured for him to roll his window down, but the man refused.
His black Chevy Tahoe was completely unmarked and had no visible lightbars. He refused to speak to us, let alone identify himself. His license plate had been seen at confirmed ICE enforcement actions in Northern Colorado in the months prior by CORRN confirmers, so all indications pointed to him being an ICE agent. The agent was parked only a few dozen yards from the ballot box outside the Student Center. He remained parked there for nearly three hours. Throughout, we watched him surveil Black and brown students and staff from the front seat of his car. All the while, he refused to engage with us. Concerned CSU administrators also arrived and monitored the scene.
That morning, CSUPD was notified by concerned community members that a suspected ICE agent was on campus. We watched as a squad car with two officers inside rolled past the Tahoe, meekly holding up a cell phone to the window to record a video, then left the scene. They made no visible attempt to contact the agent, nor confirm he was even an agent at all. In other words, CSUPD chose not to investigate an unidentified man wearing a mask and a tactical vest surveilling CSU students and staff with binoculars. Why is it our responsibility as students to approach an unknown masked man on campus, and not our very own campus police department’s?
It gets worse. At around 10:30 a.m., the agent suddenly started his engine and left his parking spot. He began slowly zig-zagging through the Engineering Lot. He eventually drove north to the intersection of Meldrum and Laurel, turned right onto Laurel, then turned right again onto Howes, re-entering campus. Confirmers and concerned community members watched as he circled The Oval, traveled east on Laurel, south on College and then re-entered campus again onto University. All the while, confirmers and community members around campus watched and reported the agent’s activity to potentially impacted community members and the broader campus community.
As some of us approached the agent’s vehicle in Lot 440 on University, we witnessed the ICE agent’s Tahoe alongside a CSUPD squad car. The agent pointed toward nearby confirmers and concerned students, and CSUPD turned on their lightbars and blocked them from approaching. With the assistance of CSUPD, the ICE agent proceeded to leave the parking lot and disappear.
Let us put it more clearly: At his direction, CSUPD blocked concerned community members and CSU students and staff from monitoring the activity of an ICE agent on our own campus. While ICE searched for CSU students and staff to abduct, CSUPD assisted them. At no point did CSU utilize its Emergency Alerts & Safety Notifications system to inform the community of the presence of ICE on campus. Given the recent CSUPD shooting on campus Oct. 12 and the lousy outreach that followed it, this is all the more disturbing.
We are dismayed by CSUPD and the CSU administration’s unwillingness to put their students and workers first. On behalf of the countless CSU community members who fear abduction and state violence at the hands of murderous ICE agents, we ask CSUPD: Who do you work for? Who do you protect? Will you commit to serving our community, or will you bow to the wishes of ICE thugs?
Let us be clear: We do not believe CSUPD should have a greater presence on our campus nor in our wider community — CSUPD’s “expanded jurisdiction” includes Fort Collins and Larimer County. They arrested a student protester on Oct. 8. We are keenly aware of the over-policing and racial profiling already present on our campus and are wary of any so-called solutions that involve more money or resources to an already bloated department.
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