Immigrants

Last week, union members at the JBS meatpacking plant in Greeley voted overwhelmingly to go on strike. They’re doing so to ask for safer working conditions. It’s happening at a moment of uncertainty for many of the workers who are refugees and not U.S. citizens. We dig into the backstory.

The bills were in the works before Alex Pretti and Renee Good were killed in Minnesota last month. But their deaths and the scale of the immigration crackdown in the Twin Cities have delivered new urgency.

“It’s already come here. We’ve already seen the violence,” a Durango immigrant rights advocate says.

A man who fled Afghanistan and settled in Colorado after helping the U.S. military fight the Taliban was arrested in an immigration sweep targeting truck drivers on Oct. 10. He’s been held in ICE detention ever since, without being charged with a crime. Hear what happened – and how it’s affecting his family in Boulder County.

As the federal government shutdown continues, Republican lawmakers keep saying Democrats shut down the government to give “illegals” access to government-funded health care. Democrats say that’s a lie. It’s complicated.

President Trump’s tariffs on steel and aluminum, as well as increased immigration enforcement, are having ripple effects in the state’s construction industry.

Immigrants without legal status account for a huge portion of Colorado’s construction workforce. So, as immigration raids become more common, what’s the effect on the state’s construction industry? A researcher from the University of Colorado-Denver says it could have negative impacts.

Some of the toughest jobs in Colorado are done by workers at a meatpacking plant in Greeley. Workers there slaughter and process hundreds of head of cattle each day. And now, they live under the threat that changing immigration policies may force them to return to dangerous situations in their home countries. Today on In The NoCo we’ll hear from a reporter who spent time getting to know them.

A new art and storytelling exhibit in Fort Collins highlights the perspectives of immigrants and refugees who live in Northern Colorado. It reveals a surprising number of shared experiences through portraits, poems and letters. Today on In The NoCo we talk with the exhibit's curator about what she hopes visitors will take away from the show.

The sugar beet industry was integral to the prosperity that Colorado enjoys today - but it was the workers toiling in the beet fields who built that foundation. Today on In The NoCo, we hear about the enduring legacy of the immigrant families who shaped our region.