ICE detained an Oakland resident at Denver airport 22%
By Darwin BondGraham13%
7/23/2026, 12:02:49 AM
Keywords: Immigration And Customs Enforcement
BS Summary: This article contains 19 faulty reasoning types, including Negativity Bias, Anecdotal, and Availability Heuristic, with Unattributed Quote as the most egregious example at 17.1% saturation with 181 hits. Analysis detected 988 faulty-reasoning hits from 1,060 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 35.9% and a BS Rank of 22% (16,081 of 20,518 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 78.40% of the article peer group.
An Oakland resident was detained by federal immigration agents Monday evening at the Denver International Airport, moments before she was about to step onto an airplane to fly home.
She is being held in ICE’s Aurora detention center outside Denver, a facility with a history of safety issues that is currently experiencing a tuberculosis outbreak.
Chantal Morales Rojas, 27, had gone to Denver last Thursday to provide child care for a family that was participating in an Ultimate Frisbee tournament and to visit friends.
Those close to her are shocked by Morales Rojas’ detention.
Now they’re organizing legal support, including a GoFundMe campaign, to free her and assist her in immigration proceedings.
Information about Morales Rojas’ detention spread rapidly on social media.
We were unable to contact Morales Rojas, and her attorney did not immediately respond to an interview request.
Morales Rojas entered the United States from Ecuador lawfully in 2023 on a J-1 visa to work as an au pair, according to Lauren Cahr.
Cahr’s family hired Morales Rojas to help care for their first child in Santa Cruz County, and is the family that hired her for the Denver trip.
Morales Rojas currently lives in Oakland and works as a software engineer for a nonprofit.
Cahr described Morales Rojas as having a heart of gold and said she considers her a dear friend and part of her family.
Morales Rojas is also friends with other players who attended the ultimate tournament in Denver.
“She’s incredibly grounded and mature, intelligent, funny, generous, and kind,” Cahr told The Oaklandside.
“She is always there for the people who need her.
She’s passionate about making the world a better place.”
Cahr, who no longer lives in the Bay Area, lined up Morales Rojas’ travel to Denver and said she enjoyed spending time with her.
Bay Area resident Alicia Dantzker was part of the same friend group that traveled to Denver to participate in the tournament.
She stayed with Cahr and Morales Rojas and was pleasantly surprised to learn they would be on the same flight home.
At the airport, Dantzker and Morales Rojas had a bite to eat.
Dantzker briefly left Morales Rojas at the gate to go fill her water bottle.
“When I came back, she looked terrified,” said Dantzker.
Morales Rojas told her she’d been approached by a man asking to speak with her about her immigration status.
Dantzker asked another tournament player who was also waiting for the same flight for some advice.
The person, who works as an attorney in the Bay Area, advised that if they approached Morales Rojas again, Dantzker could document the situation by recording it and making a lot of noise, but they said not to interfere.
The man who had approached Morales Rojas was still standing nearby, and, according to Dantzker, several other men, all in plainclothes, started to gather nearby and watch them.
“We thought they might just be harassing Latina-looking women in the airport,” said Dantzker, so when the flight started boarding, they quickly got in line.
The Southwest Airlines gate agent scanned their boarding passes, and they walked onto the tunnel jetway, but an alarm started going off, and the gate agent called them back.
Two of the men then hurried onto the jetway and confronted Morales Rojas and herded her and Dantzker into the tunnel.
“They physically pushed us back,” said Dantzker.
She said they told Morales Rojas, “We’re going to be nice to you, but we have a warrant for your arrest, and you have to come with us.”
Video of the encounter recorded by Dantzker, and reviewed by The Oaklandside, shows two men talking to Morales Rojas.
Dantzker can be heard telling Morales Rojas, “You don’t have to say anything.”
One of the men turns around and tells Dantzker she is interfering and threatens to charge her with a crime.
Dantzker replies that she isn’t and keeps filming and advising Morales Rojas of her rights.
The men then lead Morales Rojas through a door back into the terminal.
Taking her by the arms, they lead her through another door onto the tarmac.
Dantzker and others said a van marked as a Department of Homeland Security vehicle then drove Morales Rojas away.
Cahr and Dantzker stayed in Denver to try to track down where the agents took Morales Rojas, and Dantzker set up the GoFundMe page.
Cahr, who was still in Denver as of Wednesday, said they were able to talk on the phone with Morales Rojas after she got to the GEO ICE Processing Center in Aurora.
“She confirmed over the phone she’s physically safe,” said Cahr.
Tuberculosis outbreak at center where Morales Rojas is being held
A tuberculosis outbreak in the detention center has sickened at least 12 people in recent days, and a detainee held there told The Guardian that the air conditioning in some units has broken down.
Tuberculosis is transmitted via the air.
State and local health officials say that GEO Group, the corporation that operates the detention center for ICE, hasn’t shared public health information with them about the outbreak.
The facility has been the subject of multiple complaints, including “excessive heat, limited access to drinking water, respiratory illnesses and detainees’ [poor] access to medical care,” according to CBS Colorado.
In response to questions about Morales Rojas’ detention, an unidentified Department of Homeland Security spokesperson sent the following statement to The Oaklandside.
“On July 20, 2026, ICE arrested Chantal Alejandra Morales Rojas, an illegal alien from Ecuador.
She entered the country on Oct. 20, 2024, on a visa that would allow her to stay in the country until Jan.
4, 2025.
In violation of our nation’s laws, she overstayed her visa.
She remains in ICE custody pending removal proceedings.”
We were unable to independently confirm details about Morales Rojas’ immigration status.
Cahr said she’ll be in Colorado as long as it takes to support Morales Rojas.
“My number one priority right now is getting her out safely.”
Dantzker questioned why the government felt it was a priority to send multiple men to detain a young woman with who is “living a quiet life in Oakland.”
“She was safe living outside of detention.
She’s not safe there,” said Dantzker.
“Two people have died there.
The world is no safer, and she’s now in significant danger.”
Speakers
2speakers37%attributed speech664writer words
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87%flagged-word coverageAlicia Dantzker
220 attributed words56% of attributed speech53% writer coverage
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