ICE office to open in Greeley

By Chris Casey, Greeley Tribune

Published July 21, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.

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An Immigration and Customs Enforcement office, a flashpoint of controversy when it was proposed three years ago, will open this fall in Greeley.

Doug Flanders, regional spokesman for the General Services Administration, said the office, just east of Aims Community College, should be completed by October or November.

Sean Conway, Greeley-based chief of staff for Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., said the office should shift the burden of enforcing crimes related to undocumented residents from the Weld County Sheriff's Office to the federal agency.

"If this office can make Greeley, Weld County and northern Colorado a safer place to live and work, that is a good thing," Conway said.

Others in the community are not convinced it's a wise or cost-effective move.

The current ICE office in Brush makes sense, said Susanne Villarreal, a community activist, because of drug traffic flow along Interstate 76 and points east.

"If (the Greeley office's) purpose is to send undocumented people back to their home country, I think the ICE raids did that," she said, referring to the Swift & Co. raids in December 2006. "I think it's such a waste of your money, my money."

Rhonda Solis, another activist, said a Drug Enforcement Administration office makes better sense in Greeley.

"I've heard more about the drug issue and drug busts, and we still don't have a lot of facilities for people to have rehab and do detox," Solis said. "I really think that would have helped our community a lot more."

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