A judge has ordered Aurora landlords and a rental company to stop harassing its Venezuelan tenants based on their citizenship status in a lawsuit filed over alleged threats to report a family to immigration officials.
Arapahoe County District Court Judge Thomas W. Henderson issued a preliminary injunction Tuesday after the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado filed the lawsuit on Jan. 28. The suit claims that the apartment complex owner, Avi Schwalb, along with assistant manager Nancy Dominguez and PHS Rent LLC, repeatedly intimidated their renters — a Venezuelan couple with pending asylum applications and their sons, ages 15 and 3 — with the goal of forcing them out of their unit without due process.
A written court order issued Wednesday concluded that the tenants demonstrated that “immediate and irreparable injury, loss or damage will result” if their landlords disclose their immigration status to anyone or make related threats. The landlords are forbidden from harassing the renters on the basis of citizenship as the litigation plays out.
Now, the case will proceed toward trial.
“Landlords cannot threaten, harass, intimidate, coerce tenants based on their perceived immigration status, particularly given the (political) climate around the country and in Colorado,” ACLU of Colorado legal director Tim Macdonald told The Denver Post, speaking on behalf of the unnamed couple. “All tenants have rights.”
The case is the first he’s aware of in Colorado of a landlord accused of intimidating a renter because of their immigration status since President Donald Trump took office on Jan. 20.
National attention has recently focused on the Denver area after raids by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal agencies took place last week, with potentially dozens of people detained at apartment complexes and other locations. Confirmation of exact numbers was still not available as of Wednesday, with ICE spokesperson Steve Kotecki saying, “We have no information for you at this time.”
Court documents say the Aurora couple began their lease last September. According to the ACLU, they fell behind on rent after having to pay medical bills in November — which led the landlord to disparage their home country, illegally change the apartment’s locks and make claims that “they had no rights as Venezuelans.”
The civil rights organization said that on Jan. 24, the landlord told the renters that they must vacate the premises — or they’d be reported to immigration officials.
A Facebook page operating under the name PHS Rent LLC has made several posts in Spanish about available rental units. A representative of the rental company confirmed receipt of a request for comment via phone Wednesday afternoon, but Schwalb and Dominguez didn’t immediately respond.
Macdonald argues that the landlord’s rhetoric and actions are illegal because they violate a state law that bars landlords from making threats or offering information about tenants’ citizenship status to law enforcement. Landlords also cannot attempt to coerce renters into vacating their units because of their immigration status under the law.
“The evidence is pretty clear cut that the landlord did in fact threaten to call immigration on the tenants,” Macdonald said. “And we expect to prove that to a jury.”
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