Editor’s note: This is a submitted opinion piece. The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Greeley Free Press. GFP reviewed factual claims in the submission and reached out to the three candidates specifically named in the piece to give them an opportunity to respond. By Jenifer Montes As someone who has been on the front lines in Hudson over the past year, fighting tooth and nail against the Big Horn for-profit ICE detention center, election season is starting to feel like a painfully predictable ritual. Every cycle, a fresh wave of candidates rolls in promising to save us from the extremist nightmares of Gabe Evans, Lauren Boebert, and Steve Reams. They smile for the media, sell their carefully crafted lines, and play up their backgrounds to buy sympathy—positioning themselves as our valiant defenders against the far right. But if they were actually here for us, they wouldn’t just be using our fear of those politicians as a cheap campaign pitch; they’d be standing right here in the trenches. For a year, grassroots organizers like myself and everyday community members have done the taxing work, holding town halls, scrutinizing municipal codes, and demanding basic accountability from local leaders. Yet when you look around the room at those very local community spaces and council meetings, the candidates who are desperately courting our votes by flashing their anti-extremist credentials are nowhere to be found. Instead, we are left navigating a roster of absentee figures and slick political actors whose commitment to Weld County is just pure theatrics to win votes, leaving us with politicians who are all show and no substance. Take Manny Rutinel. He’s got the playbook down to a science: leaning heavily on his family’s immigrant background and rolling out a painfully practiced, performative hola just to manufacture instant relatability and score easy political points. Except, the second you need him to actually stand with the communities bearing the brunt of ICE raids, detention expansion, and the looming shadow of the Big Horn concentration camp, the tune shifts real fast. Ask him to set foot in Hudson, and out comes the eternal politician’s excuse: That’s outside his district, or he’s just too busy from his team. Apparently, when a full-blown human rights crisis unfolds right next door, treating district lines like a moral Get Out of Jail Free card is just what passes for leadership nowadays. He’s there for the flashing lights, but when the crowd disperses and you actually need a representative to put their neck on the line, he’s nowhere to be found. Let’s talk about what’s actually in his district: the notorious Frederick hold room, where human beings—some as young as six years old—have been locked in windowless boxes with no beds or toilets for up to 34 days. And what was Manny’s heroic contribution? He rolled up after hours with a full media crew, filmed himself knocking on locked doors, looked right past the community members standing right there and into the cameras, then ghosted before anyone could ask him for an actual plan. Sure, he wrote up a polite little letter to ICE. Fantastic. But, letters don’t keep kids warm, and we’re the ones still out there watching that horrific hold room to this day with zero support from him. It’s a recurring comedy of bad optics. Remember the three-week JBS strike? Manny made his grand cameo just long enough to drop off a few boxes of donuts —apparently expecting three thousand starving employees to survive on a pastry crumb— while the community pulled endless shifts handing out actual water and snacks because those workers didn’t have access to a cafeteria. Try texting Manny for support, whether it’s months in advance or last minute. You’ll be met with crickets and excuses. But you know what never changes? Our town hall, every single month on the first and third Wednesday at 6 p.m. sharp in Hudson. People figure out how to make their way there from all over Colorado, carpooling, recovering from major surgeries, leaning on walkers—like Emma, who literally took a bullet to the foot from a GEO Group employee at the Aurora center. If everyday people can push through physical agony to show up for each other, why can’t the guy with the official title? Oh right: because choreographing TikToks and staging photo-ops doesn’t require getting your hands dirty. Then there is the race for Weld County Sheriff, featuring independent candidate Fabian Rodriguez, whose official stance on immigration enforcement attempts to play both sides of the fence. Rodriguez states that his office “will follow Colorado law” and will not engage in civil enforcement or target people solely on status, prioritizing violent crime instead. His commitment is fundamentally rooted in operating within the legal status quo, meaning a refusal to take a principled stand against systems like ICE detention facilities operating in our backyard—so long as the paperwork is processed “legally”. What makes this position sting, at least to me, is how he leans on his own immigrant background as an easy shortcut to earn the trust of the Latino community, offering a warm sense of security while delivering zero actual protection. To me, it feels like a profound betrayal: wrapping yourself in a shared cultural identity just to secure votes, only to fold when it takes courage to push back against a machine like ICE. That isn’t representation—it feels like a betrayal. The community needs to trust this protection now more than ever. Recently there was a report that exposed a system where local inmates are handed over to ICE and disappear before they even get their day in court—violating due process rights and leaving victims and families with zero answers. When local law enforcement operates as a transport system that makes people vanish into federal custody before a judge ever sees them, how can any immigrant family trust that badge? ICE isn’t above the law, and with over 50 lives stolen in ICE custody alone, passive compliance is a choice. Local law enforcement has a fundamental duty to stand as a shield for residents, not a revolving door. Working within a broken system isn’t reform; it’s preservation—and true community safety means having the backbone to stand up for basic justice, even when it’s uncomfortable. Then there is Eileen Laubacher, who spent most of her adult life registered as a Republican before conveniently slapping on a Democrat label when it fit her political ambitions. In my view, she has mastered the art of showing up for photo-ops and waving from parade floats, but goes completely missing when real leadership is required. When a massive detention facility is expected to open right in the very district she’s running to represent, I’d expect someone asking for our votes—especially someone trying to prove she’s a “new” kind of Democrat—to take a stand. Instead, you get dead silence. To me, it just proves that while it’s easy to campaign when all you have to do is smile for the cameras, a fresh coat of party paint doesn’t give you a spine when it’s time to look voters in the eye and address a human-rights crisis in your own backyard. Every community deserves so much better than elected officials who act like empathy is a favor you have to pull teeth to get. They shouldn’t have to carry the weight of a humanitarian crisis entirely on their own shoulders—sacrificing sleep, emptying their own pockets, and carpooling through physical pain just to keep each other safe while the people with power look the other way. Honestly, I am so completely exhausted by the endless theater of choosing the lesser of two evils, or being handed the same old bad deal wrapped in a different color. We don’t want the same destructive leadership of Gabe Evans, Lauren Boebert, and Steve Reams under a different brand name—we deserve to actually be heard, to feel safe in our own neighborhoods, and to know we can count on the people we vote to represent us because they didn’t just slap on a fake label when it became politically convenient. This community deserves real people—not polished brands, not career politicians, and not paper-thin phonies who only show up when there’s a camera crew in sight. We need leaders who actually listen to everyday people, who don’t b******t their way through town halls, and who are genuinely about it from day one. Real leadership isn’t a curated TikTok video, a polite letter mailed off to an agency operating with total impunity, a calculated silence on detention centers, or a sheriff playing both sides of the fence with the law. It’s showing up when it gets uncomfortable, standing shoulder-to-shoulder in the dirt, and having the guts to draw a hard line. F**k Donald Trump and every machine that profits off human cages. We must abolish ICE. It’s time to stop waiting around for absentee saviors and start backing the people who have been in the trenches all along, refusing to look away. Let’s change s**t up, build a community that actually protects its own, and stop settling for anything less than real. Author Bio: Jenifer Montes is a 34 yr old long-time Weld County resident and organizer who is deeply rooted in the community she calls home. As a proud child of immigrants, she fights alongside local families against political intimidation and systemic oppression at every level, showing up for those without privilege because the work doesn’t stop. Her grassroots advocacy has been featured on the Weld Said with Mary Metzger podcast. Greeley Free Press reached out to several candidates mentioned in this article and their replies, when provided, are listed below. Fabian Rodriguez, Independent Candidate for Weld County Sheriff “I want to make my position on immigration as clear and easy to understand as possible:The Weld County Sher
