Denver, Colorado - Denver Mayor Mike Johnston signed an executive order on Thursday banning US Immigration and Customs Enforcement from city property and directing local police to protect peaceful protesters.

The new executive order condemned President Donald Trump's use of federal immigration officers to "disrupt our neighborhoods... spread fear, tear families apart, and erode the trust that holds our community together."

Under the new rules, city agencies will not allow federal officers to use their property as a "staging area, processing location, or operations base" unless they have obtained a valid court order and will not allow them to use any vehicles or equipment owned by the city.

This is likely in response to ICE and Customs and Border Protection's regular use of government buildings and courthouses to trap immigrants trying to attend hearings or file paperwork.

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Additional measures are designed to provide protections for private property, keep agents out of city locations, ban racial profiling, and increase transparency in local law enforcement.

Most notably, local law enforcement is being directed to establish de-escalation protocols to protect peaceful protesters and ensure that public welfare and First Amendment rights are protected.

Speaking on Thursday and alluding to the killing of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, Johnston said the order is meant to protect Denver residents against abuses of power by ICE and CBP.

"We will keep every resident safe, regardless of their status," Johnston said. "Our goal is not to provoke, but to protect."

"To protect Denver, our first responders will always provide life-saving aid to anyone who is injured, no matter who injured them," he said. "No ICE officer gets to stand in our way of saving someone's life."

"If we see any ICE officer using excessive force against a Denver resident, we will step in to detain that officer and remove them from the situation. We hold our own officers to that standard, and we will hold any ICE officer to the same."