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Aurora landlords violated the law in threatening to report tenants to ICE, ACLU of Colorado says in lawsuit

The ACLU of Colorado has filed a lawsuit against a pair of Aurora landlords who the civil rights group accuses of threatening tenants, in violation of state law.

 An ACLU spokesman says the threats violate Colorado's Immigrant Tenant Protection Act and filed a civil suit in Arapahoe County District Court on Monday.

According to the suit, Avi Schwalb and Nancy Dominguez of PHS Rent LLC threatened to report two tenants and their children, aged 15 and 3, to ICE. Reached by phone Tuesday afternoon, Dominguez declined to comment. The ACLU says the couple, who are not identified in the lawsuit, have pending asylum cases with the U.S.

"We will not allow our immigrant neighbors to be terrorized like this," said Tim Macdonald, legal director of the ACLU of Colorado. "The landlord's threats violate Colorado state law, which prevents landlords from trying to take advantage of the perceived immigration status of their tenants and coercing them into refraining from exercising their rights."

According to the 11-page lawsuit, the family signed a one-year lease in September 2024. In early December, the husband and their 15-year-old son were locked out of the apartment with no notice and no court order, forcing the two to sleep in their car, the lawsuit states.

The wife called Dominguez to ask about this, and she allegedly told her that the couple "could not do anything about it because they are not 'from here,' are Venezuelan, and have no rights," according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit goes on to say that last week, Schwalb threw the couple's door open, hitting the wife in the face.

"Though she tried to lean out of its path, it struck her on her nose and between her eyebrows. If she had not leaned back, the force of the door would have broken her nose," the lawsuit states. "Schwalb had visited the Apartment for maintenance purposes on prior occasions. At those times, he had also shouted at Plaintiffs. Defendant Schwalb had also previously harassed Plaintiffs' former neighbors, who were also Venezuelan. And Defendant Schwalb had degraded Plaintiffs' Venezuelan national origin to Plaintiffs' neighbors."

Schwalb allegedly threatened to call immigration officials on the couple if they wouldn't comply with purported eviction notices that he said required they leave in "one hour, two hours," but refused to show the couple.

The ACLU's attorneys say no court order approving an eviction existed and that the landlords used the threat of calling immigration officials to try to coerce the couple into surrendering their property and leaving the apartment within a few hours, despite still having months on their lease.

The lawsuit accuses Dominguez and Schwalb of violating the state's Immigrant Tenant Protection Act, which forbids landlords from threatening, harassing, and retaliating against tenants on the basis of their actual or perceived immigration or citizenship status, "disclose or threaten to disclose information regarding or relating to the immigration or citizenship status of a tenant to any person, entity, or immigration or law enforcement agency," or "harass or intimidate a tenant or retaliate against a tenant" for exercising their rights under the Tenant Protection Act or opposing any conduct it prohibits, among other protections for tenants.

It also accuses the landlords of violating the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act and trying to remove the family without the proper legal processes.

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