cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/54303656

Former Mesa County Sheriff’s Deputy Alexander Zwinck resigned last year after facing disciplinary action and a lawsuit from Attorney General Phil Weiser

Former Mesa County Sheriff’s Deputy Alexander Zwinck appears to be working at Immigration and Customs Enforcement after facing discipline for collaborating with ICE last year in the arrest of Utah college student Caroline Dias Goncalves, according to federal data hacked and published by activists.

Zwinck is listed in the published data as a special agent at Homeland Security Investigations, an office that is part of ICE, in Grand Junction. The data, which includes the information of more than 41,000 employees at the Department of Homeland Security, was obtained by a group called Department of Peace and published in October by a nonprofit called Distributed Denial of Secrets as a searchable database.

The Washington Post verified the authenticity of the data with current and former DHS officials as part of an investigation the newsroom published this week.

It’s not clear when ICE hired Zwinck or if he is still employed there. Zwinck did not respond to a text message or email Tuesday.

ICE’s June 2025 detention of Dias Goncalves, then a 19-year-old University of Utah nursing student, sparked public outrage and led to a federal lawsuit in which a judge ruled ICE officers acted illegally in arresting Goncalves and others without warrants across the state. Most people arrested by ICE last year had no prior criminal convictions, according to data obtained from ICE and published by the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law’s Deportation Data Project.

When a Colorado Sun reporter called the phone number listed in the data for Zwinck this week and asked if this was him, he responded affirmatively before hanging up. The Sun attempted to independently verify the data by searching for records related to the person identified in the data as Zwinck’s supervisor in Grand Junction, that person’s supervisor in Denver, and that person’s supervisor in Montana. The Sun was able to confirm those people have addresses in those places.

In response to questions, a spokesperson at the Denver ICE public affairs office said in an email, “Due to employment privacy policies ICE does not confirm the employment status or personnel actions of any individual.” The emailer did not identify themselves.