Denver Mayor Mike Johnston has formally banned Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from city property as well as mandated the detention of any agent who uses “excessive force” on city residents.
The Democrat leader officially moved to protect illegal aliens from federal immigration enforcement with an executive order that comes amid his party’s efforts to use the current partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as leverage to force changes to ICE that would severely impact its mission.
“No ICE officer gets to stand in our way of saving someone’s life. To protect Denver, if we see any ICE officer using excessive force against a Denver resident, we will step in to detain that officer and remove them from the situation,” Johnston said from the Mile High City on Thursday.
(Video: YouTube/Denver7)
“We seek not to provoke but to protect,” Hizzoner said in a statement. “In a time of great fear, we are reminding Denverites that there are still those you can trust and lines you can’t cross. Our law enforcement and legal teams will stand up for civil liberties, and, if necessary, step in to protect the life and safety of our residents. This is our city, and we will defend the rights of every person in it.”
“Denver police have a responsibility to protect and preserve the rule of law,” Denver Police Chief Ron Thomas said. “As sworn officers we have a universal duty to intervene and are committed to investigating all incidents where members of the community are harmed.”
“People in our community have rights, regardless of where they were born,” said Denver City Attorney Miko Brown. “Denver will continue fighting to protect these rights, uphold the Constitution, and guard against federal overreach.”
Johnston’s order also prohibits ICE agents from being on city-owned property.
“In Denver, we will not allow ICE access to any city-owned or city-controlled building,” he said during a Thursday news conference. “We will not allow ICE to use city property to stage civil immigration actions, and we will encourage private businesses in Denver to post signs doing the same.”
The executive order comes as the left has gained the upper hand in the debate over enforcing federal immigration law and deporting the foreign invaders allowed into the country during the Biden administration.
Months of whipping up leftists with constant demonization of ICE finally bore fruit when two left-wing militants were shot in Minneapolis while obstructing federal officers last month, sparking protests and a media outrage campaign that instilled terror into squeamish Republicans in an election year.
Last month, Soros-backed Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner likened ICE to Nazis and vowed that agents who cross the line in the “City of Brotherly Love” will be arrested.
BREAKING: Philly DA Krasner vows to “hunt down” ICE agents, labels them “WANNABE NAZlS!” pic.twitter.com/NpRJpqQXbU
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) January 27, 2026
“We will arrest you. We will put handcuffs on you. We will close those cuffs. We will put you in a cell,” Krasner said. “We will do everything in our power to convict you and we will make sure you serve your entire sentence because Donald Trump has no power whatsoever to pardon you.”
“While Denver cannot prevent the federal government from conducting civil immigration enforcement – and while we will continue to work with law enforcement agencies to remove violent criminals from our streets – the city has a responsibility to its residents to ensure their Constitutional rights are protected and that they are able to live safely,” the statement from the mayor’s office read.
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