In the wake of Renee Good’s death at the hands of a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in Minneapolis on Jan. 7, many have taken the opportunity to join protests and rallies, expressing their condemnation of the actions of masked immigration enforcement agents across the country.
“Right now, ICE is really feeling like something that people, even on the right, are feeling upset about — it’s becoming this national symbol of what we’re fighting against,” said Braiden Synnestvedt, a high school senior and a lead organizer with North Denver to Boulder Indivisible (ND2B), during an interview in a parking lot at Centennial Airport on a cold Saturday morning.
While he’s happy to see so many people coming out against the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda, Synnestvedt hopes that those joining protests decide to take it a step further by helping organize the next one.
“I know it seems like we’re always doing a lot because we are, but we are in desperate need of organizers, not just participants,” said Synnestvedt. “There are always so many things that can be done, and oftentimes we just don’t have enough organizers to lead those things.”
Synnestvedt, along with a half-dozen or so other activists from across the Front Range, met at the airport last weekend, preparing for a demonstration in front of a Key Lime Air hangar. The small charter airline, based out of Centennial, has been contracted by the Department of Homeland Security to transport ICE detainees across the country.
Several other protests have already been held against Key Lime in the months since Colorado Newsline identified the airline as one of several working with ICE. Another, Avelo Airlines, recently announced that it would be cutting ties with ICE after a pressure campaign led by activists. Here in Colorado, organizers want to use that momentum to push for a similar announcement from Key Lime.
At last weekends gathering at the airport, rather than a protest or a rally, Synnestvedt and fellow organizers were shooting photos and videos, planning to use them to promote an upcoming nationwide protest targeting the airline on Jan. 31.
After driving up to the hangar’s gates, the group set to work arranging folding chairs to resemble how detainees might be seated in one of the small planes parked behind them. They shackled their hands together with plastic handcuffs, while another organizer donned a bright green flight attendant’s uniform.
“Obviously, we’re targeting ICE, but what are the corporations that are helping ICE do what they’re doing? So we started looking into the flights,” said Dain Lee, another organizer involved in the morning’s action. “So a group of organizers got together and started mobilizing against [Key Lime Air]. We’re trying to grow it nationwide because they’re transferring people across the country, so it’s as relevant here as it is anywhere they transfer people.”
Beyond protesting Key Lime Air, groups like (ND2B) and No Concentration Camps in Colorado have also been working to prevent ICE from opening new detention facilities in places like Hudson and Walsenburg, and activists have been pushing local governments to speak out against ICE activities.
Participating in an action like the one at Centennial Airport could feel far outside of some people’s comfort zones, or even jeopardize their employment — something that dissuades many from joining activist groups. While organizers are most often associated with megaphones, marches, and public displays, that is far from all they do.
“There is a lot of organizing that’s not on the front lines,” said Lee. “We have people who just make flyers, people who make online technology platforms, all of this stuff that can be done behind the scenes with no one even knowing that you’re doing it.”
For several of those at the airport that day, joining activist organizations like ND2B was a choice driven by their own frustration with what they saw happening across the country.
Synnestvedt started participating in organizing spaces in May of last year after seeing protesters on the side of the road in Lakewood.
“I had been upset for a while at that point,” said Synnestvedt. “I got out of my car, and I just went up and introduced myself.”
Since then, he has become the communications lead for North Denver to Boulder Indivisible, frequently posting videos about upcoming protests and important news about immigration enforcement in the state. His posts regularly get tens of thousands of views and have become a major source of publicity for the movement.
While he acknowledges that some events are more successful than others, one of the most important results he’s seen while organizing has been the way it brings communities closer together.
“We have meetings, and we have potlucks, and we are actually able to meet with people and connect,” he said in an interview before the airport event. “These activist groups are ways to find like-minded people, to find friends, and to build that community.”
With the threat of a major deployment to Colorado at the forefront of many people’s minds, activists say forming a well-connected community is one of the most important things that can be done to prepare.
“We have a huge network of ICE whistles that have already been distributed, a similar technique to what has been used in Chicago and Minneapolis, and we’re saying, ‘Hey, Denver’s gonna fight back if ICE decides they want to terrorize our city,’” Synnestvedt said. “I recognize that we have to meet the Trump administration where they’re at, so if they step up their game, we’re stepping up our game.”
