This article has been updated to add information and correct the Rock Springs Police Department’s original statement that agents at the Clarion Hotel were with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The department later announced the agents were actually with U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Rock Springs police responded to a protest Thursday morning at a hotel where U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents were staying and assisted them in leaving, the Rock Springs Police Department said in a statement.
A crowd of people had gathered around the border patrol agents’ cars and used vehicles to block the officers from leaving the Clarion Hotel, according to the statement. The agents asked the police department to help them leave the city. Rock Springs police assisted the federal officers out of the parking lot.
“We recognize the complex political struggle in our nation right now,” the police department announcement states.
“Lawful assembly will always be protected,” the statement continues. “Our priority remains the preservation of public peace; while we support the right to be heard, we will continue to take the necessary steps to uphold the laws that keep our community secure.”
The statement did not mention any arrests taking place amid the police response.
Sweetwater County Sheriff John Grossnickle criticized protesters’ actions, which allegedly involved attempts to “confront, follow, and harass” the off-duty immigration officers, he wrote in a Facebook post. He also dispelled “claims about unlawful detentions, door-to-door immigration checks, and demands to show papers.”
A spokesperson for the sheriff’s office, Jason Mower, later told WyoFile that the statement wasn’t intended to be an accusation, but was meant to “set expectations” and be a forward-looking “call for civility.” Mower clarified that Grossnickle’s description of the protesters’ behavior was not observed first-hand, but relayed to the office by the federal agents when they called for help.
“I recognize these situations can be unsettling for communities and painful for families,” Grossnickle said. “Immigration enforcement is complex, and while strong emotions are understandable, conclusions should be grounded in verified information rather than assumptions or speculation.”
Mower later told WyoFile that two deputies from the office also responded to the protest along with Grossnickle, who was “monitoring and observing” the situation. Wyoming Highway Patrol officers were also at the scene, according to Mower.
The recent shootings of Alex Pretti and Renée Good in Minneapolis by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers have intensified protests nationwide against the Trump administration’s immigration actions, including in Wyoming. Impromptu protests appeared over the weekend in communities across the state following Pretti’s death. In Casper, U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman abruptly ended a town hall on Tuesday after a heated back-and-forth with the crowd about the shootings.
But while there’s now more attention on immigration enforcement, Rosa Reyna-Pugh, a Rock Springs civic engagement and immigration advocate, said there’s nothing new about federal officers’ presence in town. ICE agents, for instance, come to Rock Springs with some regularity to pick up people being held in local facilities for immigration reasons and transfer them to other locations, she said.
“This is not brand new,” Reyna-Pugh told WyoFile. “We have been seeing this activity.”
It’s not clear what border patrol agents were doing in Rock Springs. Historically, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers have been in charge of immigration enforcement near U.S. borders, while ICE agents have been responsible for enforcement in the country’s interior. But the distinction between the two has become murkier under the current administration.
Sweetwater County has a long-standing relationship with ICE. In 2020, the Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office became the first in the state to join ICE’s 287(g) program, which allows state and local officers to perform some immigration enforcement under ICE’s oversight.
But it wasn’t until April 2025 that the office signed an agreement with ICE to participate in the 287(g) program’s “task force” model, which allows trained deputies to question anyone believed to be an alien about their right to be in the country during routine field operations. Mower said the Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office now has three patrol deputies who have training under ICE to more proactively investigate individuals’ immigration status.
Other Wyoming law enforcement agencies, such as the Wyoming Highway Patrol and the Laramie County Sheriff’s Office, also participate in ICE’s task force model.
There is a huge difference between a person brought into the US as a child, who has grown up as a model citizen, married, raised their kids, and paid their taxes, and “the worst of the worst”, the “rapists and murderers” ICE authorities claim, dishonestly, to be targeting.
“But they broke the law!” folks cry. As has every Wyoming citizen who has ever exceeded the speed limit. “Throw them in jail!, they’re criminals!” – Yes? And speeders actually do risk lives, piling up thousands of bodies each year – quiet migrants making on honest living do not.
Do your readers really think all migrants without documentation are “rapists and murderers? That citizens of Somali ancestry are “garbage”? Of course not!
Law enforcement should focus on serious criminals – migrants or otherwise. That’s how our communities are made safer.
As long as Trump and his clown show continue to throw gasoline on this fire, protests by honest citizens will only grow – as they should. Is simple honesty too much to ask of this US Government?
Yea for these protesters who recognize that Trump is responsible for any and everything wrong today!
I had a root canal last week. It’s only because Trump is in office. My 25 year old pickup needs a new rear main seal to stop oil from leaking out. Again!! Trumps fault..
Some of you are dismayed by ICE sending illegal aliens back across the border – the ones Joe Biden & The Border Czar Kamala Harris let into the country unvetted. Were you as concerned and dismayed about the illegal alien high on meth that drove his truck head on into the couple on the motorcycle south of Torrington literally dismembering them? Or the folks driving 80,000lb missiles down the interstate in the country illegally with defective equipment putting Wyoming citizens at risk?
I didn’t think so.
Don’t forget George Bush jr. and all presidents in my lifetime-except President Obama. Yes, Biden let a lot of immigrants in, but so did the Republicans. Most, if not all presidents wanted a reformed immigration policy, but congress didn’t want to get the job done. Why? The economy. You Trumpers like put all the blame on the Democrats. Sorry, they’re all to blame.
Speaking only for myself, I have no problem with undocumented people being deported per the pertinent laws and constitutional authority. I do have a huge problem with authorities harassing, arresting, detaining and, in some occasions, beating people suspected of being here illegally. I have a problem with people being dragged from their homes or cars without the proper warrants or where probably cause consists only of the color of a person’s skin or the way they speak. Let this deportation process continue, but do it within the bounds of the law. Sorry if that slows things down for the administration, but if you run on law and order you need to obey the law.
The lack of comments is chilling.
Welcome to Wyoming! Where sane people outnumber crazy people by a factor of 20:1… according to state senators that are 59 republicans to 3 democrats.
I urge my fellow citizens to do your own research about these issues: the entirely voluntary cooperation, often motivated by politics or financial incentives, with a lawless federal agency by our local law enforcement departments does not do justice to our Wyoming values let alone our safety. Essentially, these 287(g) agreements turn our state and local police into tools of ICE and divert the time and attention of local officers towards enforcing badly managed, often illegal federal immigration tactics. I am in no way suggesting that our local law enforcement offices should not aggressively pursue and prosecute actual criminals of any status; in fact, that’s exactly what they should do to keep us all safe!
Furthermore, hard data shows that immigrants — including undocumented immigrants — are LESS likely to commit crime than U.S.-born citizens.
From the National Policing Institute: https://www.policinginstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Appendix-D_0.pdf
You’re missing the point that coming across the border is a crime in itself! Deport the illegals!
I believe the worst management of Federal resources occurred in the Biden years of having open borders.
I believe the worst management of federal resources is happening right now, under the trump administration.
Gordon, when 11 million people essentially invade this country in just 4 years.
Cleaning up the mess would be a monumental task. What Trump has done isnt even close to what is needed. Obama deported millions more.
I stand by my comment. Also, if you read my comment above, you would see that I mentioned President Obama. There has always been millions of immigrants, under both parties.
OK, bolshie.
Congratulations and a tip of the ol’ Stetson to those alert citizens! Identifying and confronting these agents in every aspect of their activities is helping get the point across that even in red states like ours some of us have a sense of the right and wrong way to do a job. ICE has a job to do. No denying that. They’ve been doing it wrong. No denying that. Again, thanks for showing up and making visible our fight against inhumanity.
Yeah for these protestors! The Trump administration is relying on local law enforcement, that is sympathetic to rounding up brown people, to stop any legitimate expression of our 1st Amendment rights. Any local law enforcement that agrees to work with anonymous, masked agents while their deputies escort these tax payer funded vigilantes out of parking lots is doing exactly what Trump expects. The Trump administration is directing the Federal Prosecutors to focus on indicting protestors instead of actual violent crime.
See this article for connecting the dots.
https://emptywheel.net/2026/01/30/pam-bondi-destroying-the-village-to-save-stephen-millers-murderers/
Back in 1921 the KKK in Wyoming had many members of the law enforcement were part of the KKK and now local law enforcement is aiding and abetting a taxpayer funded police force that gets paid openly to wear masks, the modern day white hood. In fact it appears that history hits too close to home as the previous members of the Wyoming Historical Society found out. Erasing embarrassing history is what Wyoming seems to be doing at the behest of this administration.
I smell bolshie.
I appreciate your coverage here on this, but could you please be more mindful about verifying statements made about 1st amendment protected activity? This article points out that the agents and Rock Springs Police were misrepresenting Rock Springs residents’ actions, they were not blocking vehicles. And quoting the Sheriff’s statement based on a Facebook post without talking to the people involved there is a journalistic misstep. I respect WyoFile, but hope for better than this. https://www.sweetwaternow.com/protesters-allege-sheriffs-office-rspd-lied-about-thursday-ice-demonstration/
Illegal immigrants should go back home.
People shouldn’t interfere with law enforcement. It’s very dangerous.
You know where you wont see ICE….
Jackson, they need their low paid servant class. I’m pretty certain hands were slapped in July when they dared venture onto the Royalty’s territories harassing the peasant subjects.
Excellent reporting. This is why I value Wyofile.
I am horrified that law enforcement in Wyoming is cooperating in the trump administration’s anti-immigrant activity. I always believed that Wyoming folks were there for their neighbors.