Protesters take down US flag and replace it with a Mexican flag at ICE detention center

• Protesters gathered outside of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement center in Aurora, Colorado, and hoisted a Mexican flag on Friday afternoon.
• An upside down American flag spray painted with "Abolish ICE" was also raised, according to news reports.
• Around 2,000 protesters gathered at the Aurora ICE processing center, roughly 13 miles from Denver, to protest ICE raids and what they allege to be inhumane conditions for detainees.
• The Aurora center is privately run and is supposed to house 150 detainees.
• The center declined to comment in a phone call and immediately hung up on INSIDER.
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Protesters gathered outside of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement center in Aurora, Colorado, and hoisted a Mexican flag on Friday afternoon, two days before the agency is set to conduct a nationwide operation to round up around 2,000 immigrants for deportation.

Video footage showed a Mexican flag being raised on a flagpole directly in front of the facility. The US flag was taken down prior to the Mexican flag being raised; a spray painted upside down Blue Lives Matter flag was also raised.

Protesters spray painted the upside down flag with "Abolish ICE," CBS Denver reported.

Around 2,000 protesters gathered at the Aurora ICE processing center, roughly 13 miles from Denver, to protest ICE raids and what they allege to be inhumane conditions for the detainees, according to The Denver Post.

Protesters waved "ABOLISH ICE" signs and chanted slogans like "free them all."

The Aurora center is privately run by the The Geo Group and has been since 1986. The center is supposed to house 150 detainees.

The center declined to comment in a phone call and immediately hung up on INSIDER.

Other protests are being organized against the sweeping raids on undocumented migrants in 10 major US cities slated to take place on Sunday. Homeland Security official said the families expected to be targeted all have open deportation orders, according to The New York Times.

City government officials criticized the upcoming raids and said they will not be assisting in the event. Around 50,000 undocumented immigrants live in Denver, Denver's Immigration and Refugee Affairs director, Jamie Torres, said to The Post.

"Our immigrants are very important to us," Denver mayor Michael Hancock said in a press conference on Friday. "They're our neighbors, they're our friends, they're our coworkers. They are part of our economic, social, and cultural fabric of what makes Denver great."

"As my Grandma Delores would say, this ass-backward policy of the White House has taken us backward," Hancock added, according to The Post. "It has the immigrant community fearful."