{"id":439801,"date":"2026-01-30T23:56:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T23:56:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/439801\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T23:56:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T23:56:12","slug":"demonstrations-against-ice-continue-in-denver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/439801\/","title":{"rendered":"Demonstrations against ICE continue in Denver"},"content":{"rendered":"

Updated at 4:40 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 30, 2026.<\/p>\n

Thousands have gathered across multiple protests in Denver on Friday. Many businesses and school districts closed around the state as part of national \u201cICE OUT\u201d demonstrations<\/a> against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s immigration actions. The protest called for \u201cno school, no work and no shopping.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGenuinely, the energy here is electric, people fighting for our constitution, fighting for democracy itself, and fighting for a just and humane immigration system,\u201d State Sen. Julie Gonzalez told CPR News at a protest in La Alma-Lincoln Park in Denver. <\/p>\n

\"HalfKevin J. Beaty\/DenveriteA large group of students marches into an even bigger crowd gathered at La Alma-Lincoln Park, as they all protest President Donald Trump’s deportation surge. Jan. 30, 2026.<\/p>\n

Earlier in the day, around a thousand students marched from St. John\u2019s Cathedral to the State Capitol and then joined demonstrators in La Alma.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cViolence is violence, and people are people,\u201d an 11th grader from Denver East High School said. \u201cI think that’s why a lot of students showed up today, because we’re just sick of injustice and the inhumane actions of our government.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mandy Hostetter teaches a constitutional law course at East High School. She said she’s proud to see her students taking what they’ve learned to the streets.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"AKevin J. Beaty\/DenveriteAn enormous crowd gathers at La Alma-Lincoln Park to protest President Donald Trump’s deportation surge. Jan. 30, 2026.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey understand the three branches of government. They can name them. They can say what their powers are, what they can and can’t do,\u201d Hostetter said. \u201cAnd they see that being violated really often right now. They see violations of the 4th Amendment, the 1st Amendment, the 2nd Amendment, the 5th Amendment, the 14th. It goes on and on, and they want to make sure that doesn’t happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy sign says, \u2018Silence sides with harm.\u2019 I’m a firm believer that if you stay as a bystander and just watch what’s going on, then you’re choosing the wrong side,\u201d said another 11th-grade student at East High School who joined classmates from the Students Demand Action Club. \u201cChoosing no side is the equivalent of choosing the wrong side.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Kevin J. Beaty\/DenveriteA large protest group, mostly made up of students, marches through downtown Denver on a general strike day across the nation against President Donald Trump’s deportation surge. Jan. 30, 2026.\"\"Kevin J. Beaty\/DenveriteDenver East High School students walk through Capitol Hill to a protest against President Donald Trump’s deportation surge with hundreds of other students. Jan. 30, 2026.<\/p>\n

The protests come following nearly a month of violent ICE activity in Minneapolis and the resulting deaths of Renee Good<\/a> and Alex Pretti<\/a> at the hands of federal agents. Both Good and Pretti had ties to Colorado, leading to several smaller-scale protests in the state in recent weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey take somebody who dedicated his life to helping other people and curing the sick, and they shot him in the street. So that’s why I’m taking a stand,\u201d said Matthew Anderson Duncan, of Pretti, who was a VA nurse in Minneapolis. Duncan is an oncology nurse who joined his wife, a teacher, at the protests. \u201cPeople are out here suffering for no reason because of ICE.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"A large protest group, mostly made up of students, marches through downtown Denver on a general strike day across the nation against President Donald Trump’s deportation surge. Jan. 30, 2026.\"\"A large protest group, mostly made up of students, marches through downtown Denver on a general strike day across the nation against President Donald Trump’s deportation surge. Jan. 30, 2026.<\/p>\n

Ahead of the demonstrations, social media platforms were flooded with small businesses declaring their plans to close for business on Friday in solidarity with a planned \u201cNational Shutdown.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe hospitality industry in Colorado is diverse and under a lot of stress given recent reports of heightened enforcement activity,\u201d said Sonia Riggs, president and CEO of the Colorado Restaurant Association. \u201cOur members are worried about their teams and their businesses, and we fully support them as they navigate operations in this uncertain time.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Kevin J. Beaty\/DenveriteA large protest group, mostly made up of students, marches on Lincoln Street on a general strike day across the nation against President Donald Trump’s deportation surge. Jan. 30, 2026.<\/p>\n

Leading the movement in the Denver area were teachers, who started turning in their plans to be absent from work on Friday. Districts said they had no option but to cancel all classes at the last minute, which upset some parents.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just think it was really poorly handled,\u201d said mom Randi Maves, who found out this morning school was closed. She has a 5-year-old who goes to Isabella Bird Community School in Central Park as part of their Early Childhood Education program, as well as a 1-year-old. \u201cIn my mind, if they knew there were going to be potential teacher shortages, they should have assigned substitutes earlier in the week.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other parents used the day as a lesson.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know there were a lot of parents who, you know, could be inconvenienced by this,\u201d said mom Sofia Solano, who was planning on attending a protest with her 17-year-old. \u201cBut to me, having ICE in Colorado, and what’s happening in Minneapolis, is far more of an inconvenience than having our kids out of school for one day.\u201d<\/p>\n

There have been no reports of injuries or issues with police as of Friday evening. More protests are expected throughout the weekend.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’ve spent the past year learning about our government and how it works,\u201d a senior at East High School told CPR News. \u201cWatching this unfold is against everything that we’ve been taught and everything that we believe should be happening right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"SeveralKevin J. Beaty\/DenveriteDenver East High School students march down Colfax Ave. towards the state Capitol, Jan. 30, 2026.<\/p>\n

Editor’s note: As part of CPR\u2019s community service policy and mission statement, this story has been updated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Updated at 4:40 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 30, 2026. Thousands have gathered across multiple protests in Denver on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":439802,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,9045,21288,790,65947,3,2564,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-439801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-colorado-news","tag-immigrants","tag-immigration","tag-immigration-and-customs-enforcement-ice","tag-news","tag-protests","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=439801"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439801\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/439802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=439801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=439801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=439801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}