Colorado Springs’ proclamation for Martin Luther King Jr. Day became a referendum on the recent violence involving federal immigration officers. Nine reverends and faith leaders in Colorado Springs used the proclamation at Tuesday’s City Council meeting to say King’s beliefs called them to oppose Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions, especially around the shooting death of Renee Nicole Good by a federal agent last week in Minneapolis. Good was a former resident of Colorado Springs, a U.S. citizen and a 37-year-old mother of three. According to Minnesota officials, Good was a volunteer in a neighborhood network that tracked ICE operations. The Tuesday statements in Colorado Springs caused Councilmember Dave Donelson to walk out of the room and refuse to participate in the rest of the proclamation. The appearance was organized by the Rev. Candace Woods, who said she put out a call over the weekend. Woods said those who showed up on Tuesday came from local churches representing four faith denominations. “I don’t know how you cannot see the connections. Dr. King called us to stand up for our neighbors in the face of incorrect, immoral laws,” Woods said. Good’s death has resulted in protests in Colorado Springs, Minneapolis and other cities. The federal government has since deployed additional ICE agents to Minneapolis. The Rev. Paula Stecker, a retired Lutheran pastor and chair of the Colorado Springs Faith Table, spoke about how King’s final speech in Memphis talked about government attempts to limit the freedoms of speech and protest of civil rights advocates. Stecker said the same issues were at the forefront again in Minneapolis. “The administration has underestimated the love and moral courage of Minnesotans and their leaders. And my hope is that you, as leaders, will show that same love and courage before ICE kills someone here,” Stecker said. Donelson said that ICE officers were enforcing immigration laws that were legally enacted and were largely popular with the public. “Native-born Americans are under siege by an illegal invasion of tens of millions of illegal immigrants, so I fully support ICE and their actions, and I find what was said here offensive,” Donelson said before he walked out of the council chambers. Donelson has been open in the past about his support for enforcing immigration laws. In September 2024, when the City Council approved a resolution stating that Colorado Springs was not a sanctuary city, Donelson unsuccessfully pushed to include language that all undocumented immigrants should face “remigration or deportation.”  Donelson has never voted against a previous proclamation for the holiday because the honor does not require City Council votes. When the Martin Luther King Jr. Day proclamation was read in January 2024, Donelson disagreed with one of the speakers about whether the government suppressed minority voters but stayed around for the full event. In her comments, Woods cited King’s speech on the three evils that was given at the National Conference of New Politics in 1967: racism, excess materialism and militarism. She said the actions of immigration officers over the last year represented the first and third of those evils. “And we say to our nation tonight, we say to our government, we even say to our FBI, we will not be harassed, we will not make a butchery of our conscience, we will not be intimidated and we will be heard,” King said in the segment referenced by Woods. Councilmember Roland Rainey had introduced the proclamation by speaking about the distance the United States had come in the decades since King’s death. Rainey said there were still “ills in our society” in 2026, but that King’s speeches showed how to better yourself and the world. King’s granddaughter Yolanda Renee King will be speaking in Colorado Springs on Sunday at the Richard F. Celeste Theatre and Monday at The Antlers as part of the city’s events for the holiday. Her visit was organized by Shirley Martinez, chair of the MLK Legacy Committee. Martinez had been accepting a similar proclamation Tuesday from the El Paso County Board of County Commissioners when the faith leaders spoke in Colorado Springs. She said they were not speaking on behalf of the committee and were not aligned with how they hoped to celebrate his legacy. “You are fully entitled to your thoughts, but you should still listen to other people’s opinions. Part of what we’re doing with the MLK events is demonstrating how to move forward,” Martinez said. All eight of the other city councilmembers stayed to accept the proclamation. After the council meeting ended, five councilmembers who were still around took an additional picture with Martinez. ...read more read less