DENVER — A Venezuelan immigrant told Denver7 his brother was unfairly detained Wednesday morning during a federal law enforcement operation that was supposed to target members of the Tren de Aragua (TdA) gang.
The man did not want to be identified because he felt his brother was unfairly targeted by federal agents and that he could be next.
Speaking in Spanish, the man explained that he and his brother were leaving Denver's Cedar Run Apartments around 6 a.m. Wednesday to go to work when they encountered agents from multiple agencies beginning their operation at the complex. Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) said Wednesday that the purpose of the raids was to improve public safety and that more than 100 members of the Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua (TdA) were targeted.
"These actions were targeted operations focused on violent criminal aliens, TdA members, and those who are a threat to our public safety," said Tim Lenzen, acting special agent in charge of the Denver HSI office, during a press conference Wednesday.
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The Venezuelan immigrant, who has lived in Denver for two years, questions that narrative.
"That when they were allegedly coming in search of people who are criminals that have a record," he said in Spanish. "But it turns out that wasn't the case because they started asking [my brother and I] for our documentation."
The man told Denver7 he is in the country legally with Temporary Protected Status. He showed his documentation to the agents, who affirmed his legal status. However, the man said the agents did not accept the documents from his brother, who is in the middle of the asylum process.
"And without any reason, they took my brother out of the car by force," the man said. "They handcuffed him. They didn't allow him to speak anymore and without any reason, they put him on the bus."
The man shared cell phone video of what appears to be his brother handcuffed, standing against the car. He was told his brother was at a detention facility in Centennial.
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The man said he is nervous for himself and other immigrants in the community.
"We truly feel very bad because we have never committed any criminal offense — never been detained for any crime, not even something minor like a petty theft — and we feel terrible because they are acting so badly," the man said of the agents. "They say they are coming after criminals, but that isn’t true. They are going to apartments to take away any person they recognize as a migrant."
In response to a question about agencies seemingly going door-to-door and the potential for collateral arrests, Lenzen said agents have to search multiple units in order to find their targets.
"We do know that people move different apartments," he said. "We were contacting everybody in that area looking for the targets that we were looking for under the public safety mandate that we have in order to try and identify those.”
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