More than 100 immigrants suspected of being in the United States illegally were taken into custody early Sunday following a federal raid at an illegal after-hours nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colorado, authorities said.
Video posted online by the Drug Enforcement Administration showed agents announcing their presence outside the building and ordering patrons to leave with their hands up. Other videos showed dozens of people fleeing the building through its entrance after federal agents smashed a window.
Later, dozens of suspects were shown in handcuffs standing on a sidewalk waiting to be transported.
During his second stint as U.S. president, Donald Trump’s unprecedented campaign of immigration enforcement has pushed the limits of executive power, and he has clashed with federal judges trying to restrain him.
The crackdown has included detaining more than 1,000 international college students, some of whom have seen their legal status restored, at least temporarily.
The policies have slowed immigration at the southern border to a relative trickle.
On Sunday in Colorado, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement took the club-going immigrants into custody, said Jonathan Pullen, special agent in charge of the DEA’s Rocky Mountain Division.
“Colorado Springs is waking up to a safer community today,” he said. The city, Colorado’s second largest, lies about 70 miles (113 kilometres) south of Denver.
More than 300 law enforcement officers and officials from multiple agencies responded to the nightclub, which had been under investigation for several months for alleged activities including drug trafficking, prostitution and “crimes of violence,” Pullen said at a news conference. Cocaine was among the drugs found, he said.
“When the cops showed up at the door, most of the drugs hit the floor,” Pullen said.
An undisclosed number of guns were seized, he said.
Trump posted a link to the DEA video of the raid on his social media site, Truth Social. “A big Raid last night on some of the worst people illegally in our Country — Drug Dealers, Murderers, and other Violent Criminals, of all shapes and sizes,” the president wrote.
Pullen estimated more than 200 people were inside the nightclub.
Also among those detained were a dozen active-duty military members who were either patrons or working as armed security.
Pullen said some patrons were arrested on undisclosed outstanding warrants.
Pullen did not specify the countries from which the detained immigrants were.
Earlier this month, a federal judge in Colorado temporarily blocked deportations of immigrants who face possible removal under Trump’s invocation of an 18th century law known as the Alien Enemies Act.