Federal immigration police lend hand with DNC security

While more than 60 local, national and military law enforcement agencies are helping out with security surrounding the Democratic National Convention, there’s one federal agency that may not be expected: Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

According to information obtained by The Colorado Independent from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which manages the immigration agency, ICE will be providing enforcement personnel to support “safety efforts” at both the Democratic and Republican conventions:

-ICE Office of Investigations is deploying special agents, including Special Response Teams, and many government-owned vehicles, to assist its sister agencies and local emergency and law enforcement agencies with the security and safety of the conventions.

-ICE Federal Protective Service (FPS) is deploying personnel to Denver and St. Paul to ensure public safety and continuity of operations at federal facilities in the area. The FPS deployment includes K-9 explosive detection teams, uniformed officers, intelligence and undercover agents, and bicycle and motorcycle officers. Both ICE Office of Investigations and Detention and Removal Operations will also supply agents to support the overall mission at both conventions.

-FPS will position Mobile Command Vehicles (MCVs) in Denver and St. Paul to serve as force multipliers for federal, state and local law enforcement agencies. MCVs are highly advanced communication centers, with the capacity to operate as primary or backup radio base stations for all levels of law enforcement, to monitor video cameras from U.S. government facilities, to retrieve other types of closed circuit video signals and to receive real-time aircraft video feeds.

Erin Rosa was born in Spain and raised in Colorado Springs. She is a freelance writer currently living in Denver. Rosa's work has been featured in a variety of news outlets including the Huffington Post, Democracy Now!, and the Rocky Mountain Chronicle, an alternative-weekly in Northern Colorado where she worked as a columnist covering the state legislature. Rosa has received awards from the Society of Professional Journalists for her reporting on lobbying and woman's health issues. She was also tapped with a rare honorable mention award by the Newspaper Guild-CWA's David S. Barr Award in 2008--only the second such honor conferred in its nine-year history--for her investigative series covering the federal government's Supermax prison in the state. Rosa covers the labor community, corrections, immigration and government transparency matters. She can be reached at erosa@www.coloradoindependent.com.

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