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ICE raid leads to 7 arrests in Avon

Melanie Wong
Vail Correspondent

EAGLE COUNTY, Colorado ” Seven people were arrested from the Aspens Trailer Park in Avon on Wednesday after a raid by U.S. Immigration and Customs.

ICE agents were also looking for people in Edwards, but no arrests were made.

The arrests were part of the “fugitive operations program,” which target illegal immigrants who have received federal orders of deportation but have not complied, ICE spokesman Carl Rusnok said.



“These are targeted operations looking for specific people,” he said.

Those operations “give top priority to cases involving aliens who pose a threat to national security and community safety, including members of transnational street gangs, child sex offenders, and aliens with prior convictions for violent crimes,” according to the agency’s website.



Three of the people arrested were from Honduras and four were from Mexico.

One person was not a “targeted person,” but agents found out during the operation he had been deported and re-entered the country.

Some said the arrests left the community shaken. At Avon Elementary, several parents came to pick up their children in the middle of the day for fear that immigration agents would get them, Principal Melisa Rewold-Thuon said.

With one family, both parents were arrested, leaving four children, ages 13, 9, 6 and 5, in the care of relatives.

“They were very upset when they were at school. The little ones were very scared because they didn’t know where their parents were and weren’t able to talk to them,” Rewold-Thuon said.

Rusnok also said the arrests were not related to four arrests made earlier this month by ICE agents at the Sunridge Apartments in Avon.


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