Immigration officer is charged with assault after protest outside
Colorado ICE facility, DA says
[April 23, 2026]
By COLLEEN SLEVIN and MORGAN LEE
An immigration officer has been charged with third-degree assault and
criminal mischief following an investigation into how he treated a
protester who said the officer put her in a chokehold.
Multiple videos from bystanders show a masked agent grabbing and pulling
Franci Stagi across the street during a protest in October against the
detention of three Colombian asylum-seekers in Durango, Colorado. She
said he grabbed her by the hair and put her in a chokehold. The state is
among several that prohibited or severely limited police officers from
using chokeholds and neck restraints since George Floyd’s death in 2020.
The Colorado Bureau of Investigations launched an investigation into the
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer's actions against Stagi at
the request of Durango Police Department Chief Brice Current, who raised
concerns about possible violations of state law — an unusual if not
unprecedented request.
The Department of Homeland Security, which includes Customs and Border
Protection, called the prosecution “unlawful” and a “political stunt.”
It said states have no authority to investigate such cases.
“Federal officers acting in the course of their duties can only be
investigated by other Federal agencies,” DHS said in a statement.
The department said it was still investigating what happened in the
incident.
Court documents didn’t list any attorney as representing the officer,
Nicholas Rice.
Stagi said she was standing close to the officer and filming him outside
the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Durango, a
college town popular for outdoor recreation, when he hit her hand hard,
causing her to lose her cellphone. Stagi, a retired hypnotherapist, said
she then reached for the officer's shoulder to get his attention. After
she said he put her in a chokehold, she said he threw her down an
embankment next to the street. She said she still experiences pain in
her arm doing normal everyday activities, like putting on her jacket.
Court documents allege that Rice committed third-degree assault by
causing bodily injury to Stagi, but the documents don’t describe how she
was injured or make mention of a chokehold. Rice also is charged with
criminal mischief for allegedly damaging Stagi’s cellphone.
Stagi said Wednesday she was disappointed Rice was charged with less
serious crimes. The assault charge, a misdemeanor, carries a maximum
sentence of just under a year in jail. But she hopes the prosecution
sends a message that immigration officers can't tackle people
indiscriminately and use excessive force.
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Franci Stagi center, speaks with a Durango, Colo., Police Department
officer early Oct. 29, 2025, after an immigration officer allegedly
assaulted her in Durango, Colo. (Scout Edmondson/Durango Herald via
AP)
“It did open my eyes to how quickly I can be under someone else's
control, and it's frightening,” said Stagi, whose legal name is Anne
Francesca Stagi.
Federal law enforcement officers have broad legal protections when
acting in the course of their official duties, and the Justice
Department has in recent months taken a hard line against state
efforts to arrest or prosecute federal agents. Late last year, U.S.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said arrests of federal
officers performing their duties would be “illegal and futile,”
citing the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause and federal law. Legal
experts say those protections are significant but not absolute and
the Supremacy Clause does not provide blanket immunity.
Chokeholds have been at the center of public discourse and state
legislative initiatives about what constitutes an unreasonable use
of force since Eric Garner died in New York in 2014 after he was put
in a chokehold by a white police officer.
Garner’s dying words, “ I can’t breathe ” became a rallying cry for
the Black Lives Matter movement.
While some states have banned chokeholds and other tactics, sweeping
changes were met with resistance.
A federal package of reforms that would have banned chokeholds
nationwide passed the U.S. House in 2021 but failed to reach
then-President Joe Biden’s desk. The bill was named in honor of
Floyd, who died in Minneapolis after a white police officer pressed
his knee to his neck.
Within a month of Floyd’s death, Colorado lawmakers approved a ban
on chokeholds as part of broader police reform legislation. The law
overrode more limited chokehold restrictions that were put in place
four years earlier.
___
Slevin reported from Denver, and Lee from Santa Fe, New Mexico.
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