By Quentin Young | editor
“We want people to see what it really looks like … It’s when the shackles are all laid out on the pavement, and the sun is shining on them, and then you see them getting put on people, and then people struggling to walk. People should know.”
— Dana Miller, who tracks ICE flights at the Denver airport
Dana Miller, Kristen Aldretti and Amy Farrar watch a plane scheduled to transport people detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement out of the Signature Aviation terminal at the Denver International Airport on Sept. 13, 2026. (Photo by Sara Wilson/Colorado Newsline)
Colorado activists call for transparency measures as they attempt to track ICE flights out of Denver
By Sara Wilson
On a Sunday morning in September, three Colorado women met at the cell phone lot near Denver International Airport and waited for a flight from Texas to arrive. They were not awaiting visiting family and friends. This was a plane scheduled to pick up people detained in Colorado by U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement and transport them to Mesa, Arizona. Such flights occur on a semi-regular basis. The activists’ goal is to physically witness and count the people being boarded onto these flights and feed it into a national network of volunteer ICE flight observers called Habeas Flight Watch.
A view of the No Kings protest at the Colorado Capitol in Denver on Saturday. (Photo by Andrew Fraieli/Colorado Newsline)
By Chase Woodruff and Newsline staff
Hundreds of demonstrators rallied and marched near the Colorado Capitol on Saturday in the largest of dozens of planned No Kings events across the state, part of a nationwide day of action that organizers hope will encourage participants to vote and help protect the November election. It was the latest in a series of No Kings events since President Donald Trump’s inauguration in January 2025. Protesters say the Trump administration has pursued authoritarian policies, such as disregard for the rule of law, abuses by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and attempts to meddle in elections.
Work continues on the new QTS data center in Eagle Mountain, Utah, on April 17, 2026. Today’s data center buildout has become the largest industrial boom since the railroad era of the 19th century, with $10 trillion in investment and almost twice the economic impact. (Photo by Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch)
By Tim Henderson
The sheer size of investment in data centers is drawing concern as it surpasses all other historical booms and crowds out other more job-creating ventures. Until now, no industry had driven the U.S. economy with such force since the railroad expansion of the late 1800s, when titans battled one another to lay the transcontinental tracks that would connect America from coast to coast. Railroads in the 19th century consumed about $173 billion in today’s dollars and created more than 2% of the nation’s annual economic output (GDP) over 20 years. Today’s data center buildout will dwarf that amount, with $10 trillion in investment, and now have almost twice the economic impact — nearly 4% of GDP.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
No Kings event in Grand Junction emphasizes early voting, nonpartisan participation | By Sharon Sullivan
Colorado to receive federal funding to support Aspen Acres Fire recovery | By Lindsey Toomer
Last-minute Trump DOJ suit in California targeting noncitizen voters alarms advocates | By Jonathan Shorman
Commentary: Amendment 82 is a dark-money attack on Colorado’s clean energy leadership | By Charles Kutscher
Think balancing Colorado’s budget is easy? Try it. | By Sandra Fish
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