On Wednesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “OutFront,” Denver Mayor Mike Johnston stated that an incident where there was a suspected gang member who ICE said assaulted ICE agents after he was released from Denver’s custody is the first time he knows of that there’s been a problem with how the city interacts with ICE when they have people in custody that ICE wants access to and “If there are procedures we can adjust to make it safer, we’re open to that. But this has been a procedure that’s worked for a long, long time. We’ve never had an issue until this week.”
After playing video of an exchange between Johnston and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) on the issue, host Erin Burnett asked, “I know you obviously would take issue or umbrage with the way that he presented it, but does he have a point? Does that situation of what happened in that case in Denver show something that must change?”
Johnston answered, “Yeah, I mean, we’ve had an established policy to do this. We’ve done it 1,226 times and never had an issue. What happens is, if we have someone in our custody that ICE wants access to, they ask for a notification, we notify of when they’ll be released and where. We are different than some of the other cities today, in that we do actually notify ICE so they can pick them up. This is the first time I’ve ever been aware there’s been an incident. There were six ICE officers there. The individual was unarmed. We walked him right out into a secure location. That’s a parking lot that’s fenced where he can be detained. And so, again, it’s worked safely before. I’ve reached out to ICE. We’re going to meet with them next week. If there are procedures we can adjust to make it safer, we’re open to that. But this has been a procedure that’s worked for a long, long time. We’ve never had an issue until this week.”
Johnston also said that he contacted ICE after the incident and he’ll “look at ways to improve” the process.
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