Mountain Dreamers is an immigrant advocacy group in Summit County that serves the Central Mountain region, including Eagle and Leadville. For co-founder and Executive Director Peter Bakken, providing safe and reliable information is one of the most important things they do.
PB: "We're trying to encourage people in the community to get their information from trusted sources, because that's a big problem right now. There's so much misinformation and so much crap on social media."
Javier Pineda is a program coordinator and DACA recipient who is passionate about making outdoor recreation more accessible to immigrants. He spends a lot of time face to face with the people his organization serves.
JP: "There's a lot of fear within our community as far as enforcement. That has been happening in Denver, for example, we have not seen any of that here in the mountain region thus far. I'm not saying it's not going to happen. What is clear and evident is people being cautious about this, as they do have family and friends who maybe live in the Denver metro area, or they have to go to pick up materials for work or things like that.
We have a community member who was arrested and detained from some of the raids that happened in Denver who was just on the wrong place, wrong time, and that has been the most direct hit, I guess, when it comes to this administration."
Both Pineda and Bakken are accredited to practice immigration law with the Department of Justice. Mountain Dreamers also works with immigration legal aid, assisting people who bring up issues of wage theft, helping them start businesses, and get driver's licenses. Bakken says that the unique challenges of our region, such as housing, make immigrating here a particularly difficult experience, but Mountain Dreamers is there to bridge the gap. They've been working with local law enforcement to build community trust and keep people aware of their rights.
PB: "Mountain Dreamers has been working with elected leaders, managers of the towns and the counties. The superintendents and other educators at the schools, and we've certainly been engaging with, like Javier said, local law enforcement leaders. We've done some community events and met with groups in the region. A lot of it is kind of educational, and here's what we know is happening. Here's how people can protect themselves."
While most of the raids in Colorado are taking place on the front range, no one is ruling out the possibility they could spread onto the Western Slope. Pineda says that the fear is part of the administration's tactic against the country's immigrants.
JP: "It's only the beginning, to be honest. There's a lot of propaganda behind it. It's based on fear and all of that, but the message that I want people to know is that we need to continue with our lives as normal as possible. Obviously, we just need to be careful, right, and be more thoughtful of exposing ourselves. It's time to continue being resilient as we have been for many decades."
Mountain Dreamers has established itself as a safe space in the community, and Bakken states they won't flinch away from offering resources and services to Coloradans regardless of legal status.
PB: "We're a group with a vision of a better community, a more inclusive community, and we're continuing to work towards that. We're doing this defensive work. Because of the threat of to the immigrant community and to immigration enforcement, but we're not going to stop doing the community building work that we're doing, whether that's Javier's winter ski and snowboard lesson program or all the other types of positive community building work we do, we're going to continue to build towards the kind of communities we want."
Immigration rights and raids are a developing story, and KDNK will continue to report on these issues as they arise. More information on this organization can be found at MountainDreamers.org.
