Over the past year, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have detained more than 3,000 people in Chicago, deported thousands from Los Angeles, and arrested 250 in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Trump administration gave varying reasons for these surges in ICE activity: With regard to Minneapolis, President Donald Trump called the city’s Somali population “garbage,” adding, “We don’t want them in our country.”

These cities all lean heavily Democratic, and in many cases, their local officials have aggravated the president in some way. Denver, which the Justice Department sued last year for allegedly violating the U.S. Constitution with what the agency called “sanctuary laws,” shares those traits. The similarities have left many wondering whether ICE will launch a similar surge in the Mile High City.

“I am speculating that they will,” says Reuben Gregory, programs director for the Denver Inner City Parish’s Immigrant Center, a nonprofit that provides naturalization and legal services. “We’re just assuming the worst.”

Since late 2025, U.S. immigration officials have deployed more than 2,000 agents to Minneapolis and, according to the Trump administration, arrested over 3,000 of what Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem called “criminal illegal aliens including vicious murderers, rapists, child pedophiles, and incredibly dangerous individuals.” (Independent analyses by the Cato Institute and the New York Times found that nationwide, from January 20, 2025, to October 15, 2025, 37 percent of those arrested in ICE operations had a past criminal conviction; seven percent of those were for violent crimes.)

Tens of thousands have flooded the Twin Cities’ streets to observe and protest federal agents’ tactics and presence; agents have shoved demonstrators, deployed tear gas and pepper balls, and, in January, shot and killed two U.S. citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti. “I’m hopeful we won’t see anything approaching what Minneapolis has had to endure,” Denver District Attorney John Walsh says. “But if a surge like that did come to Denver, we will be ready, and we are preparing for it already.”

Walsh and Mayor Mike Johnston are careful in discussing how they are preparing for a potential ICE surge, pointing to legal actions and constitutionally mandated methods for investigating crime scenes. In September, Denver filed an amicus brief on behalf of California Governor Gavin Newsom’s lawsuit against the Trump administration for sending the National Guard to Los Angeles, and in January, Johnston steered Denver into an amicus brief backing Minnesota’s legal attempt to halt federal officials’ Operation Metro Surge in Minneapolis. Beyond Denver’s legal maneuverings, Jon Ewing, the mayor’s spokesperson, says immigration is not a “crisis” here, citing statistics that show recent declines in homicides and homelessness. “There is no stated reason to bring federal forces to Denver,” Ewing says.

Although Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, and Vice President JD Vance have declared that U.S. immigration agents have “immunity,” Walsh argues that “federal agents are not immune to prosecution by virtue of being federal agents.” The district attorney adds that his office will insist on investigating any potential crime scene involving a shooting by federal agents—“God forbid,” Walsh says—and will follow legal protocols about pressing charges if warranted or filing a public report if they are not.

Local activists are more explicit about their preparations. Jordan Garcia, a Denver-based program director with the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker organization that advocates for global peace and justice, says his team has carefully studied the Twin Cities’ network of anti-ICE protesters and is helping volunteers network and practice working together, “block by block, to prepare for a Minneapolis-like invasion of ICE.” He adds: “It’s clumsy and it’s messy from time to time, but it’s people who want to use their citizen privilege to protect their neighbors, and that feels hopeful.”

The Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network has a “robust attorney-referral program,” according to Laura Lunn, its advocacy and litigation director, providing pro-bono counsel to immigrants in Denver, Aurora, and elsewhere in Colorado, where immigration arrests spiked from 843 in the first 10 months of 2024 to 3,522 last year. “Knowing the rules is absolutely the best tool we have at our disposal,” she says. For example, agents cannot legally enter a private home without permission or a signed judicial warrant.

Walsh and Ewing take the position that ICE is unlikely to surge in Denver anytime soon; Walsh believes the “national public outcry” over the Minneapolis shooting deaths appears to have de-escalated the Trump administration’s efforts there, with ICE removing 700 agents over the past week. Says Ewing: “There’ve been no warnings, no notifications. As far as the escalation you’re seeing in Minneapolis, we don’t have any reason to believe Denver is on that list.”

Nevertheless, they will continue to prepare for the worst. “Pray for sun, prepare for rain,” Ewing says. “That’s what we’ve always done.”

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