Volunteer network documents ICE operations across Colorado
By: Delilah Brumer - July 14, 2025 4:00 am
Every other Sunday from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m., Raquel Lane-Arellano waits for calls from people across Colorado who may have spotted Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. She has been volunteering for six years, but the first time her phone rang was in January. Now, for those 12 hours twice a month, the ringing rarely stops.
Once she gets a call, Lane-Arellano confirms the location with the often shaky voice on the other end of the phone. Then she notifies other volunteers, who drive out to the area. Their job is to determine whether the sighting is legitimate, document the scene, speak to locals and hand out “Know Your Rights” cards, but not to physically confront the agents.
Lane-Arellano volunteers as a dispatcher for a 24/7 hotline run by the Colorado Rapid Response Network, a coalition of immigration, religious and legal nonprofits. The network was founded in 2017 to document reported ICE sightings and has amassed about 3,000 volunteers across the state, according to organizers.
“The purpose is to make sure people have the facts and that we try to dissuade some fear,” said Lane-Arellano, who is also the communications manager for the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition. “Because what the Trump administration wants is for our people to be afraid all the time” ...