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Latinos struggling with mental health as Trump, GOP mass deportations ramp up
A protestor for immigrant rights in Edwards recently.
Colorado’s mountain resort towns would grind to a halt without immigrant labor, and Elizabeth Velasco – a state lawmaker who moved from Mexico to the mobile homes of Eagle County at age 12 – is fighting to make sure the constitutional rights of those workers and families are upheld by state law as the Trump administration pushes for mass deportations.
“These attacks on the immigrant community don’t make anyone safer,” said Velasco, who now lives in neighboring Garfield County. “It just disrupts our community, people are scared to go to work, scared to take their kids to school. And the consequences of mass deportations would have a catastrophic impact on the state, especially in our rural resort communities that heavily depend on immigrant labor. So, it’s definitely in the statewide interest to clarify and highlight that we all have constitutional rights and those must not be infringed. We’re all humans.”
Colorado’s outdoor recreation economy is a $37 billion a year state industry, with the state’s Latino population a big part of the 511,000 direct jobs attributed to the sector.
Velasco, who represents a district that includes Pitkin, Garfield and part of Eagle County, in the most recently concluded state legislative session was one of the prime sponsors of a bill called “Protect Civil Rights Immigration Status”, or SB25-276.
“We are just clarifying and elevating that everyone in the state has constitutional rights, and those must not be violated, and that people should know the policies that hospitals and schools and libraries and childcare centers have when it comes to dealing with law enforcement,” Velasco said in a recent phone interview.
The bill passed both chambers of the state legislature and was signed administratively Friday by Gov. Jared Polis, who owns a home in Vail and has been personally sued by Trump’s Department of Justice — along with the state, city of Denver and former Vail resident and Denver Mayor Mike Johnston – for so-called “sanctuary laws”.
“The Governor’s Office worked with legislators, as well as stakeholders, including law enforcement, throughout the process on SB24-276 to help ensure it doesn’t interfere with our federal law enforcement partnerships,” Polis spokesperson Shelby Wieman wrote in an email on Thursday.
“The State of Colorado is not a sanctuary state and works closely with federal and local law enforcement regularly to make Colorado safer,” Wieman added. “Governor Polis continues urging Congress to secure the border and do their job and pass comprehensive immigration reform …”
Colorado ski towns along the Interstate 70 corridor have been on edge this past week as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, according to local immigration advocates and the Eagle County Democrats, have been active from Rifle to Edwards, where a peaceful, pop-up protest is scheduled for Friday at 5 p.m.
“We have received reports [Thursday] about the presence of federal government personnel, including ICE agents, in what appears to be a targeted campaign in our region,” the Eagle County Democrats reported in an email blast Thursday. “We have received videos and photos of activity in Eagle, Garfield and Pitkin counties.”
Initially, local law enforcement felt as if mountain towns would be a low priority, with enforcement actions focused on Trump’s Tren de Aragua boogeyman city of Aurora.
Clearly, that focus has shifted. The Eagle County Democrats are logging ICE activity along Interstate 70 between Gypsum and Edwards. They are urging people to go to the Voces Unidas website for more information, or to call (970) 340-8586 to provide information.
Local authorities say they have not been contacted by the feds and are not working with them to enforce Trump’s mass deportations, which got a $147 billion taxpayer boost by the U.S. House passing a budget reconciliation bill Thursday, including yes votes by all four Colorado Republicans.
A spokesperson for U.S. Rep. Jeff Hurd, a Grand Junction Republican whose district includes part of Eagle County, did not return an email requesting comment. Hurd, who had previously pushed for preserving Medicaid, voted in favor of nearly a nearly $700 billion reduction that nonpartisan analysts say will result in millions of people losing their health insurance. Hurd also did not respond to requests for comment on the recent Western Slope immigration crackdown.
Justin Patrick, spokesman for Eagle County – which late last month passed a bilingual resolution of support for immigrants – said in an email: “The county government was not notified and as far as we know they are just rumors [of ICE activity].” He referred a request for further information to the Eagle County Sheriff’s Office.
“We understand that news of potential operations involving federal agencies such as ICE and the DEA [U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency] creates concern and uncertainty within our community,” sheriff’s spokesperson Karina Toscano wrote in an email.
“While we are aware that these agencies may be present in the area, we want to reassure our community that the Eagle County Sheriff’s Office is not involved in any such operations, nor do we have any information about their plans or activities,” Toscano added.
ICE’s Denver office did not respond to an email request for comment on Thursday.
Founding members of the Vail ski resort and surrounding community addressed support for the Latino community in a letter to the editor to the Vail Daily in December. And Eagle County Commissioner Jeanne McQueeney, in a recent interview following a meeting with parents, said Latinos in Eagle County are “unsettled for sure. The moms wanted to know how we are keeping their kids safe at school.”
A third of Eagle County’s population of 55,000 identifies as Hispanic or Latino, and those numbers are even higher in nearby Garfield County. There’s a great deal of concern locally about the mental health impacts of ramped up mass deportation efforts – targeting families that often have mixed document status and threatening to or actually deporting people without due process to Central American prison camps.
The local hospital system, Vail Health, is actively supporting the Latino community throughout its facilities and at its newly opened psychiatric hospital in Edwards, with bilingual therapists and staff. The new 28-bed Precourt Healing Center is now the only such facility between Denver and Salt Lake City on Colorado’s Western Slope.
“The Precourt Healing Center is an essential behavioral health resource for individuals navigating challenging periods in their lives,” Vail Health Director of Inpatient Behavioral Health Teresa Haynes wrote in an email last month. “We understand the significant stress that can impact our community, particularly among our Spanish-speaking members. This vibrant community is integral to our local economy and society, and we are dedicated to addressing their specific needs with compassion and care.”
Gerardo Lopez, a community advocate who has struggled with his own mental health issues, said the stepped-up ICE activity in mountain towns already is and will continue to have a hugely negative effect on the local Latino communities.
“I mean, it’s going to be having a lot of impact,” Lopez said. “I don’t want it to happen, but I’m pretty sure something bad is still going happen, especially with Medicaid … which does cover behavioral health. And now with Trump trying to cut that, it’s going be putting a lot of people, not just Latinos, but a lot of people that need that kind of service in jeopardy.”
Trump’s so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” that just passed the House and cuts about $700 billion from Medicaid, may also spill over into cuts for Medicare. It still has to be passed by the U.S. Senate, which could restore some of that funding. The cuts are largely aimed at providing tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans, particularly tech billionaires backing the Trump agenda.
Trump, a member of a German immigrant family and now global resort owner in his own right, has previously used undocumented workers and relied on immigrant labor to run his golf course and hotel empire.
Editor’s note: A version of this story first appeared on the Colorado Times Recorder website.
David O. Williams
Vicky Anderson
May 24, 2025 at 12:05 pm
Thank you for reporting on this. It’s so important to share what actually is happening in the valley with deportation.