This immigration nonprofit in the Four Corners is busier than ever
share
DURANGO, Colo. — Business as usual at Compañeros hasn't changed. It's just much busier, said co-executive director Enrique Orozco-Perez.
"We're a grassroots nonprofit that advocates for immigrant's rights, and the scope of our work is based on advocacy and equity," he said, sitting in his office adorned with decorations made by students for a parade and a poster that reads “abolish prisons, invest in communities.”
Compañeros: Four Corners Immigrant Resource Center is a small Durango nonprofit with an annual budget of less than half a million dollars. The organization serves immigrants and their families, helping with child care, tax paperwork and more.
Requests for legal assistance from the organization, which has four full-time employees, has gone up — a lot.
“The demand for legal services has always been incredibly high and now it's higher than ever. We have zero immigration lawyers in this area, so we are the closest you get to that,” said Orozco-Perez.
Nine percent of the 20,000 people in Durango are Hispanic or Latino, according to the 2024 census. That figure includes the immigrant community from countries such as Mexico, Colombia and Venezuela.
Today, the immigrant community in Durango, and other parts of Colorado, are concerned about their legal status in the United States, as the Trump administration promises mass arrests and deportations of undocumented immigrants.
Compañeros is a half-accredited organization, meaning staff and volunteers prepare cases, but can’t represent anyone in court.
“Logistically, financially, it doesn't make sense for us to go for a full accreditation because for us to represent someone in court, that means us sending someone weekly up to Denver,” said Orozco-Perez.
Compañeros works with Kent Felty, a lawyer in Denver, when someone does need representation in court.
Orozco-Perez said they are about a month out on appointments right now, and have 200 clients that they're actively working with.
There is no charge for their consultation and assistance on asylum and citizenship cases.
“We are the only organization doing this. As a result, we have to offer things in many different areas: mental health, housing, legal, education, and we do that all under the umbrella of Compañeros,” said Orozco-Perez of the challenges of working in an isolated, rural area. “If we were in a bigger metro city, we would have the help of many other immigrant organizations who could focus on this, focus on that, and we don't have that.”
Colorado state law limits cooperation between local law enforcement and federal agencies such as ICE. Orozco-Perez said those laws make Colorado one of the most pro-immigrant states in the country.
"Things have been quiet, but we're prepared in case there is ICE activity," he said of the Four Corners region.
The organization is part of the Colorado Rapid Response Network, which sends observers to locations of reported federal law enforcement action. Orozco-Perez said 60 volunteers in Montezuma County, Archuleta County and La Plata County are on-call to help keep their communities informed if ICE were to conduct operations in the area.
Orozco-Perez said his lived experience makes this job that much more important to him. His parents immigrated to the U.S. from Colombia in 1973.
“These are good people like my parents, part of me getting into this was wanting to use my privilege as a U.S. citizen to raise voices for people who deserved their voices raised and who deserve an equal shot at making what my parents did, which was that American dream.”
He has worked at Compañeros for eight years, starting out as a volunteer to complete 500 hours of required community service. He stayed on as a volunteer and eventually became co-executive director, a position he has held for two years.
“Other generations have also had the narrative against them. The Italians came here and it was very ugly for them. Irish [people] came here and it was very ugly for them. Now, I guess it's our turn as Latin Americans. The point is, [they] deserve a chance to stay here and raise their families,” he said.
Compañeros also supports families with child care and provides access to outdoor recreation.
"All of our field trips are on no school days, because for a lot of the families it's hard to find child care, and it's expensive," said Brenda Gutierrez Ruiz, youth programs expansion coordinator at Compañeros, who takes students to the Nordic Center at Purgatory and snowshoeing at Vallecito Lake.
Gutierrez Ruiz said that kids who don’t own snow pants or proper boots for winter activities can borrow from the organization’s gear closet.
She grew up in Telluride, and scholarships gave her the chance to experience skiing and summer camps her family didn’t have the resources to afford otherwise.
“I'm really passionate about [youth] that are in similar situations as I was at their age, to be in the outdoors and give them the same opportunities I was afforded. That's why I went into education and adventure education,” said Gutierrez Ruiz.
That youth program, La Escuelita, started during the pandemic, when students were sent home with Chromebooks and Wi-Fi hotspots, but some families didn’t know how to use the equipment.
“They didn't know how to access the online schooling, and what we started seeing was kids being threatened with being truant for not showing up to their online classes,” said Orozco-Perez.
La Escuelita started visiting families at West Side Mobile Park, hosting a reading club and helping students set up their hotspots and Chromebooks.
La Escuelita also takes dozens of elementary school students to study at El Centro, the Latinx student resource center at Fort Lewis College, or to learn about science at the Powerhouse children’s museum.
At the front of the Compañeros office in the stately Crossroads building in downtown Durango, Gutierrez Ruiz is already scheduling La Escuelita activities for the summer, stopping to answer the door more often as the afternoon goes on.
A steady stream of people come in for appointments with the legal staff, and a few visitors drop off words of encouragement for the organization, the only one of its kind in the Four Corners region.
“A lot of our kids deal with bullying because they might have a thick accent or maybe they don't know English yet,” Orozco-Perez said. “[We] provide that space where they can just be themselves.”
Type of story: News
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
To read more about why you can trust the journalism of Rocky Mountain PBS, please visit our editorial standards and practices page.