U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has released more information about its operations in Frisco and Dillon involving Hacienda Real as federal agents perform operations in Summit County, which was met with a community protest Friday. 

Two more people were detained Friday, Sept. 26, during ongoing immigration enforcement operations in Summit County, bringing the total number of detainments to 10, according to Voces Unidas.

Summit Daily News has not been able to independently verify the detainments, but Voces Unidas CEO Alex Sanchez said eight of them have been confirmed in the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement database. The two most recent detainments were vetted by talking with family members of people detained and verifying that images and information posted online that captured the incidents.

The most recent activity came Friday, Sept. 26, when photos circulated that morning showing unmarked vehicles and people wearing law enforcement vests performing traffic stops near Dillon Dam Road in Dillon and detaining a man at the Smith Ranch Apartments in Silverthorne. The information family members told the organization aligned with information posted online, as they said one person was detained in the traffic stop and the other at the apartments.

Sanchez said Voces Unidas has spoken to family members of six people detained by federal agents Thursday, Sept. 25, and has found those six people in the ICE detainee database. Through its conversations with family members, the organization believes five people were detained when agents stopped them near the Super 8 hotel and the Shell gas station in Dillon while they were driving to work.

The other Thursday, Sept. 25, detainment Voces Unidas has reported occurred outside the detained man’s home in Dillon, according to Sanchez. That man was reportedly on his way to Denver to join his family for one of his children’s cancer treatments. The organization is offering to pay for legal counsel for all six of the people detained Thursday.

President Donald Trump has pledged to deport “dangerous criminals” and “the worst of the worst” through immigration enforcement operations, but federal data published for fiscal year 2025 show that 65% of detainments involved people with no criminal convictions, according to a report published by the CATO institute. An email Sept. 16 to Summit Daily News from ICE Denver Public Affairs stated the agency would not answer questions or provide details on operations in Summit County but stated that the agency is working to identify and remove “criminal aliens and others who have violated our nation’s immigration laws.”

“All aliens in violation of U.S. immigration law may be subject to arrest, detention and, if found removable by final order, removal from the United States, regardless of nationality,” the statement read. 

ICE provides details on Hacienda Real 

ICE Denver Public Affairs confirmed in an email to Summit Daily that it detained two people in its operations that took place Tuesday, Sept. 16, in Frisco and Dillon Valley. Voces Unidas reported the two people detained worked at Hacienda Real, a Frisco restaurant where agents executed a search warrant.

The ICE spokesperson wrote that the Sept. 16 operations were part of an ongoing investigation into “allegations of unlawful employment practices and other potential federal crimes.”

Homeland Security Investigations, the division of ICE that handles criminal investigations, led the Sept. 16 operation. The division’s 6,848 worksite-related cases in fiscal year 2018 resulted in 779 criminal arrests and 49 criminal convictions — a 6% conviction rate — according to ICE’s website. Those cases also resulted in 1,525 administrative arrests, the website states.

Agents also executed a search warrant at a home in Dillon Valley on Sept. 16. The ICE spokesperson stated both locations were “associated with a local restaurant,” and public records show the home and Hacienda Real’s storefront are both owned by the same company.

The company, Ayutla LLC, is registered in Colorado state records to Luis Flores, the owner of Hacienda Real.

Attempts to reach Flores for an interview were unsuccessful.

Hacienda Real wrote in a Sept. 16 post on Facebook that an anonymous tip that it had undocumented workers in the restaurant sparked ICE’s interest in the business. It stated the restaurant had cooperated with authorities for several months, but a “broader inspection of the restaurant” led to the agency executing search warrants.

The post stated the restaurant will temporarily close, as agents had taken the restaurant’s computers, but the business is grateful for the community’s “understanding and support.”

“We find peace in knowing that for more than 22 years we have worked with honesty, serving the community we deeply love,” the post stated.

Community pushes back against ICE presence

A protest against ICE activity in Summit County on Friday, Sept. 26, drew 20-30 people. 

This comes after small crowds gathered Sept. 16 at Hacienda Real and the Dillon Valley home where ICE agents executed a search warrant. Some onlookers yelled at agents, telling them to leave, and others blocked the agents’ cars from leaving at the end of the operation.   

Local teenagers Giovanna Carmonatepate and Daniel Martinez helped organize the Sept. 26 protest, and Carmonatepate said she was happy to see the turnout.

“Even if it’s not a large amount of people, people are here, and that’s what matters,” Carmonatepate said. “It shows people still care. People want a better future for other people.”

Martinez said he is proud to come from an immigrant family of hardworking people.

“Thanks to them, I was raised in a good country,” Martinez said. “But the way that this country treats us, it’s not fair.”

Carmonatepate, Martinez and Lexy Venegas, another local teenage protestor, all criticized federal immigration enforcement. Martinez said ICE is not “arresting the criminals they claim to arrest.”

“They say they’re coming for criminals, and it’s not criminals,” Venegas said. “They’re coming just for anybody that’s brown. And I think that’s just blatantly racist.”

Venegas said she has friends whose parents were detained by federal immigration enforcement Sept. 25.

“They don’t even do this for rapists or murderers,” Venegas said. “They don’t treat them the way they’re treating us. We shouldn’t have to live in fear for wanting a better life.”