My mom was born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and my dad in Biloxi, Mississippi. Apparently, my mom’s side won the genetic competition in my formulation because I inherited the brown eyes, darker skin tone and thick black hair consistent with my Hispanic heritage. My mom, born in a U.S. territory, is a U.S. citizen by birth right, as am I, having been born in south Florida. But in the U.S. today, apparently, I shouldn’t expect immunity from being detained for “questioning” based on my appearance.

Why should a native-born U.S. citizen be worried about such a thing, you might ask. Well, in the summer, being outside as much as I usually am, I tan pretty dark, and on occasion I’ve had to stop by Lowes to pick up a gallon of paint or whatever. Apparently that location and my appearance make me a legitimate target for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, commonly called ICE. That’s not me making an assumption, that’s straight from the federal government Border Czar Tom Homan. This summer, he commented that ICE agents don’t need probable cause or any real provocation to “briefly detain” a person. According to this government official, “reasonable suspicion” based on subjective visual cues is enough to make one a target for questioning by federal immigration enforcement agents and/or their proxies.

It wouldn’t matter that I’m a U.S. citizen who has only ever lived in the contiguous U.S. or that I’ve paid taxes since I was 15 years old or that I have a documented scholastic and work history that extends back five decades. If that hypothetical trip to Lowe’s happens to coincide with an ICE visit to that location, I could end up being interrogated, asked for my “papers” as it were, by an anonymous group of presumably governmental employees who have traded jackboots for Kevlar vests, camoflague and ski masks. Would they accept my driver’s license as a valid form of ID and let me go? What if I’m not carrying ID on me? What if they get me on a “bad day,” and I’m not in the mood to cooperate with their questioning of my lawful presence in that parking lot and I maybe push back a little (rhetorically, not physically)? What odds would you give me that I’d make it home in a timely fashion versus being detained “briefly,” maybe even whisked away to God knows where, leaving my family wondering what happened to me?

I must admit that I find it puzzling that we in Colorado and Summit County haven’t found ourselves on the receiving end of a large-scale unannounced ICE visit, though we’ve had two smaller-scale immigration enforcement operations. Given the considerable immigrant population we have and our designation as a sanctuary state and Trump’s focus on Aurora while campaigning, you’d think we might have seen something akin to the raids going on in California here in Colorado by now. Maybe the administration is holding off due to Gov. Jared Polis’ attempted cooperation with ICE on immigration matters linked to criminality or due to Reps. Lauren Boebert and Gabe Evans vouching for several eastern Colorado counties not being sanctuary jurisdictions. Or maybe they just haven’t gotten past the earlier C’s on the alphabetical list of “blue” states that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has thumbtacked to the wall next to her desk.

Given the massive increase in resources that the One Big Beautiful Bill Act means for ICE, it’s probably only a matter of time before we experience conflict like Los Angeles and Carpinteria have. I suspect that Summit County’s immigrant population is an attractive target for ICE enforcement, aiming to meet their daily quotas by rounding up individuals who shingle our roofs, mow our lawns, or make our sandwiches because they fit Homan’s definition of reasonable suspicion. I find it hard to believe such unchecked and blatant profiling is happening in the U.S., and even just writing the sentence above, profiling folks based on their jobs, feels wrong to me, let alone having government officials using such impressions to determine who to nab off the street for questioning.

If or when federal agents roll into town profiling folks based on appearance, occupation, and/or location, Summit County residents may be faced with a pulse quickening decision to make. Will you go tharn as you witness those officials descending upon people based on specious “evidence” and no probable cause to back their actions? Or will you attempt to intercede, perhaps making yourself a target of ICE’s wrath in so doing? It’s one thing to stand on the corner in Frisco and cheer on speakers on No King’s Day, and quite another to materially stand up to the travesty that is this administration’s immigration policy.

Tony Jones' column "Everything in Moderation" publishes biweekly on Thursdays in the Summit Daily News. Jones is a veteran of the IT industry and has worked in the public and private sectors. He lives part-time in Summit County and Denver. Contact him at eimsummit@gmail.com.