The Case for RICO Against the Colorado Rapid Response Network
In June of 2025, a dangerous man slipped through the fingers of US law enforcement. His name was Jose Reyes Leon-Deras, a convicted child rapist from El Salvador, wanted internationally for his crimes in Italy. He did not escape by his own cunning. He was aided, allegedly, by the coordinated efforts of a well-funded, well-organized, and ideologically driven network known as the Colorado Rapid Response Network, or CORRN. According to reports, CORRN volunteers received advance notice of an impending arrest operation by ICE and the FBI. Rather than allow justice to proceed, they intervened, helping Leon-Deras evade capture. A statewide manhunt is now underway. The implications are stark: private actors, aligned with political movements, actively obstructed federal law enforcement to shield a foreign national, here illegally, convicted of child rape. If this does not invite a Department of Justice investigation under RICO statutes, one must ask, what possibly could?
CORRN is no ad hoc community group. It is a professionalized coalition of over 1,200 volunteers, with a 24/7 hotline (1-844-864-8341), digital infrastructure, training programs, and coordinated field operations. It is led by the Rapid Response Team of the Immigration Resistance Table and includes a network of nonprofits such as the American Friends Service Committee, the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition, SEIU Local 105, and others. These are not rogue individuals but salaried executives and national organizations, many of them receiving millions in grants and donations, often from foundations connected to the Democratic political establishment. It is difficult to exaggerate the gravity of the precedent this sets. If ideological nonprofits can intervene in law enforcement actions without consequence, the rule of law itself begins to erode.
The legal grounds for prosecution are solid, though underused. Federal law, 8 U.S.C. § 1324, criminalizes the act of knowingly harboring or shielding illegal aliens from detection. This includes conduct that substantially facilitates an alien’s ability to remain in the US illegally. In the Third Circuit, warnings of impending ICE raids have already been interpreted as a form of shielding. Other circuits, such as the Second and Fifth, have defined harboring to include behavior that obstructs detection or arrest. Colorado falls under the Tenth Circuit, which has not issued a definitive ruling on this narrow question. Yet the spirit of the statute is unmistakable: aiding an illegal alien in escaping federal custody is unlawful.
Opponents will invoke the First Amendment. They will argue that CORRN’s warnings constitute protected speech, analogizing their conduct to motorists flashing headlights to warn of speed traps. This analogy collapses under scrutiny. While speech in the abstract is protected, speech that aids a criminal act is not. The distinction is critical. A volunteer who shouts “ICE is here” on a street corner may enjoy constitutional protection. But a coordinated organization that uses internal communications to alert fugitives of their location and facilitate escape crosses the line into criminal complicity. The First Amendment was never a license to abet felons.
In the case of Leon-Deras, the facts suggest more than expressive advocacy. There was active, real-time coordination with the intent to prevent a lawful arrest. This is not mere protest. It is obstruction. And if the Department of Justice fails to act, it sends a clear message to activist networks across the country: obstruct immigration enforcement with impunity. Consider what this does to deterrence. When child rapists can rely on nonprofit volunteers to run interference against federal officers, we have replaced law with ideology.
The broader apparatus behind CORRN only strengthens the case for a racketeering prosecution. RICO statutes were designed to combat criminal enterprises, particularly when conduct is organized, continuous, and interstate. CORRN is precisely that. Its member organizations operate in multiple states, receive funding from national progressive donors, and coordinate through a central command structure. The analogy to organized crime is not rhetorical. Just as mafia fronts once used legitimate businesses to shield illegal activity, CORRN and its affiliates use humanitarian language to mask an operational mission: prevent the deportation of individuals in the country unlawfully, regardless of their criminal record. That Leon-Deras is not the first fugitive to benefit from such actions, merely the most heinous, should concern any serious legal observer.
The nonprofit network sustaining CORRN is deeply entrenched. The American Friends Service Committee is led in Colorado by Jennifer Piper and Jordan Garcia, long-time organizers tied to sanctuary church movements. The Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition is run by co-directors Gladis Ibarra and Henry Sandman, funded almost entirely by grants from foundations aligned with national progressive causes, including the Open Society Foundations founded by George Soros. The Colorado People’s Alliance was, until recently, headed by Lizeth Chacón and now by Crystal Murillo, a sitting city councilwoman in Aurora. Their funding comes from The Denver Foundation, Open Society Foundations, and others known for pro-immigrant advocacy. Mi Familia Vota, Together Colorado, and UNE all receive major support from labor unions, local political donors, and progressive philanthropic networks, including funds originating from Soros-backed initiatives.
The Key CORRN Players:
American Friends Service Committee (AFSC)
Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition (CIRC)
Colorado People’s Alliance (COPA)
Mi Familia Vota (MFV)
Together Colorado
Padres & Jóvenes Unidos (now Movimiento Poder)
United for a New Economy (UNE)
SEIU Local 105
Casa de Paz
The East Colfax Community Collective
These groups operate under the banner of civil society but exercise powers more befitting a parallel government. They deploy observers to law enforcement sites, maintain rapid-alert systems, and disseminate scripts instructing illegal immigrants on how to stonewall federal agents. They do not merely document. They direct. They interfere. And when these groups facilitate the escape of a convicted child rapist, they do so without legal consequence.
That must end.
A prosecution under RICO statutes would achieve several things. It would pierce the veil of nonprofit immunity that these organizations have hidden behind for too long. It would expose the financial and operational architecture of the obstructionist ecosystem. It would create a deterrent effect not just in Colorado, but nationwide. Most importantly, it would reaffirm a basic principle: that federal law is not optional, and harboring felons is not heroic.
Civil society is often praised in theory as a safeguard for democratic values and individual rights. But in practice, it has too often become a vehicle for ideological subversion and institutional lawlessness. Nonprofits that were meant to serve as independent counterweights to government power now act as partisan appendages, actively working to obstruct the rule of law. When these organizations band together to shield criminal aliens from federal enforcement, they do not expand liberty, they erode it. The Trump administration, now entering its second term with a clear mandate for immigration enforcement, must move decisively. Secretary Kristi Noem at DHS and Attorney General Pam Bondi at DOJ must recognize that the problem is not a few bad actors, but an entrenched network of activist institutions operating under the deceptive banner of civil society. Systemic threats demand systemic responses.
The Colorado Rapid Response Network is not merely a policy nuisance. It is a criminal enterprise by the letter of federal law. And if we fail to prosecute it, we legitimize its methods.
If you enjoy my work, please consider subscribing https://x.com/amuse.