Colorado immigration officer charged in protest case

April 23, 2026

Summary

A Colorado immigration officer was charged after prosecutors said he assaulted a protester during a Durango demonstration in October.

Why this matters

The case is part of a broader test of how local prosecutors respond when federal immigration agents are accused of using unlawful force. It also highlights tensions around immigration enforcement in local communities.

A federal immigration officer in southwest Colorado was charged Tuesday with assault and criminal mischief after an October confrontation with a protester, according to local prosecutors.

Sean Murray, district attorney in Durango, Colorado, said officer Nicholas Rice was charged by summons, not arrest warrant, with third-degree assault, a misdemeanor, and criminal mischief.

Five days earlier, prosecutors in Minneapolis charged an immigration agent with assault after motorists said he brandished a gun at them.

Last fall, Customs and Border Protection said it was investigating the incident and that its agents were “held to the highest professional standard and guided by the highest ethical and moral principles.”

Protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement began in Durango in late October after agents arrested a Colombian asylum-seeker while he was driving his two children to school. The man later agreed to voluntarily return to Colombia with his children.

Dozens of protesters gathered outside a small ICE office on the edge of town, calling for the family’s release.

One protester, Franci Stagi, 57, approached Rice while recording him on her phone and questioned him for wearing a face covering, asking, “You won’t even show your face?”

Rice knocked Stagi’s phone away by hitting her hand. After Stagi ran after him and touched his back to get his attention, he grabbed her by the hair, put her in a chokehold, and threw her down an embankment.

Durango’s police chief requested a Colorado Bureau of Investigation review of the officer’s conduct.

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Full story +

Oil rose to a three-week high above $110 a barrel in London as traders awaited the U.S. response to an Iranian proposal to end the war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

President Donald Trump convened a meeting to discuss Iran’s proposal, but maintained “red lines” for any deal, including preventing Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

A ceasefire has broadly held since early April, but Iranian and U.S. blockades have reduced daily transits through the strait to near zero. The disruption has curbed flows of crude, natural gas, and oil products, pushing up energy prices and raising inflation concerns.

Iranian media said Sunday that Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi would tell Pakistan, which is mediating peace talks, that the conflict could end if the U.S. lifts its naval blockade, agrees to a new legal framework for traffic through the strait, and guarantees there will be no future military action against Iran.

Trump and his national security team are skeptical of the proposal but will continue talks, and the White House is likely to offer a response and counterproposals in the coming days.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a Fox News interview aired Monday that Iran appeared to want to retain control of Hormuz, which he said was unacceptable to the U.S. Before the war, about one-fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas moved through the waterway.

Two Iran-linked oil tankers interdicted by U.S. forces near Sri Lanka last week appeared to have stopped heading west in the Indian Ocean and turned around. The U.S. cordon on shipping to and from Iranian ports began April 13 and has turned away dozens of vessels.