More than 2,000 people had assembled outside the ICE detention facility in Aurora on Friday night to protest the Trump administration’s planned immigration roundups when Claudia Castillo noticed a commotion.

A group of protesters had broken through a chain marked “Private property – no trespassing,” headed for the front of the detention facility.

Castillo, a 22-year military intelligence major in the U.S. Army and current legal services coordinator for the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition, pleaded with the group of about 25 that initially pushed through. This wasn’t part of the plan, she told them. This wouldn’t help. Rather than pull back, members of the group spit on her, shoved her, and cursed at her.

She watched as the rogue protesters pulled down the American flag from in front of the facility, stringing up a Mexican flag in its place. Some people tried to burn the American flag, while others spray-painted derogatory words about police on another.

The flag incident made national headlines, prompting outrage, and discussions about whether it ultimately detracted from the message protesters were trying to send or was an appropriate display of rage.

“It was disgusting and shameful,” Castillo said. “They have compromised our movement, and they stole the spotlight and endangered our undocumented people.”

The incident came as people in cities across the country rallied against the Trump administration’s planned roundups and detention of people in the country illegally. Federal immigration officers are scheduled to sweep a handful of cities Sunday from San Francisco to Miami, including Denver, where an estimated 50,000 people without documentation live. The potential raids have sent a shiver through the city’s immigrant community, as Denver leaders condemned them as a political tool.

“They put us in danger”

Cristian Solano-Córdova, spokesman for the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition, spent an hour before the protest convincing an undocumented family member of his to join, assuring the person they’d be safe with so many people around. As the chaos began, he urged the frightened family member to leave.

“These people didn’t take us into consideration,” Solano-Córdova said. “We’re all extremely angry. They actually put us in danger.”

Authorities have not identified those responsible, though a group describing itself as “Denver Communists” posted Facebook photos from areas that were off-limits to protesters. Solano-Córdova said people who pulled down the American flag were not affiliated with mainstream immigrant rights’ groups, but had coordinated with the organizers to be there.

“They clearly were not being very honest,” he said.

No arrests were made at the protest, Crystal McCoy, spokeswoman for Aurora police, said.

In a Facebook statement Saturday afternoon, Aurora Police Chief Nick Metz said the decision was made not intervene during the flag incident “based on protecting the large majority who were acting peacefully, and the safety of the officers.” If the incident had escalated beyond the flag, he said, officers would have intervened.

Police will be reviewing available video in order to identify and pursue prosecution of those involved in criminal behavior, Metz said. Police encouraged anyone with video of the incident to contact apdcrimetips@auroragov.org.

Republican groups quickly denounced the protest as “anti-American.”

“The desecration of our American flag by extreme anti-ICE protesters should outrage every patriotic American, regardless of party,” Colorado GOP Chairman Ken Buck said in a statement. “Every single Democrat, including those running for president, should immediately denounce this deeply anti-American act.”

A spokesman for the Republican National Committee in Colorado called the protest a “disgrace to the state of Colorado and our entire nation.”

Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat, said in a tweet: “Of course I condemn the desecration of our flag, who wouldn’t?”

But Polis then turned his attention to his Republican counterparts in Colorado and Texas.

“Now will you condemn the ongoing and even more serious offense to our flag and values of putting children in cages and tearing families apart?” the governor tweeted below pictures of migrant children sleeping on detention facility floors. He also included the picture of an El Salvadoran toddler and her father who drowned while trying to cross the Rio Grande River into the United States — a photo that drew tears from congressional delegates last month and prompted outrage across the country.

Of course I condemn the desecration of our flag, who wouldn’t? Now will you condemn the ongoing and even more serious offense to our flag and values of putting children in cages and tearing families apart? @GregAbbott_TX @cologop pic.twitter.com/u2IrqFc11A — Jared Polis (@GovofCO) July 13, 2019

Candi CdeBaca, an incoming Denver city councilwoman, said people are at a point where they’re simply fed up, where talking just isn’t enough.

“This is what democracy looks like,” CdeBaca said of the protests. “I’m not disappointed. I’m proud of all of them who were there to send a message and stand in solidarity with those who have been detained and put in cages.”

But Bryce Downer, an Aurora immigration attorney who spoke at the protest, said disregarding private property and desecrating the American flag runs counter to advocates’ mission of fighting for the immigrant community.

“We want to be respectful of our laws because we’re trying to hold our government to the same standards,” Downer said. “We can’t meet them at their level.”

For Castillo, the veteran and activist, the attack on the flag felt personal. She served in Iraq and Kuwait, fighting for freedoms back home.

She walked away from the protests that night, her anger melting into disappointment.

“These were our so-called allies,” she said of the protesters. “We’re trying to be completely inclusive. We want ICE to stop caging our sisters and brothers, but not in that manner. It accomplishes nothing.”