Cristian Ramos, a U.S. citizen and Denver college student, wants an apology from immigration officials after they raided her neighborhood with guns drawn and searched her and her family members, all legal residents.

Ramos said the officers went after her family simply because their skin is brown.

She said she was outside her family's home in Aurora across from East Middle School, near East Colfax Avenue and Sable Street, about 7:30 a.m. on March 13 when she noticed the occupants of slow-moving vehicles staring intently at her.

Ramos said she realized they were officials from Immigration and Customs Enforcement. They leaped out of a white van, drew their guns, blocked Ramos' driveway with another vehicle and screamed at her and two other men not to move. Ramos, 20, raced into her home as the officials slammed one of the men to the ground.

Ramos screamed for her father, who along with her mother, is a legal immigrant from El Salvador.

Ramos, her parents, her 19-year-old brother and a friend who had been living with the family were searched for weapons. Ramos said the ICE officials kept screaming at her parents, asking how they had gotten their papers, where they were from and how long they had lived in the U.S.

Ramos said her father finally learned that the officials were looking for a woman who gave their family's address as her own.

Carl Rusnok, an ICE spokesman in Dallas, was looking into the incident on Friday, but was not able to explain what triggered the raid and searches.

"There was no basic respect. It was inhumane," said Ramos, a sophomore studying communications at the University of Colorado at Denver. "I could not believe that Immigration is allowed to go to anyone's home in that manner and do whatever they feel like and treat people as if they are criminals when all they have to go on is the color of their skin."

Her parents, who asked not to be named, had fled violence in El Salvador in the 1980s. Her father now works as a roofing contractor, they said.

Ramos said the officers refused to give their names and badge numbers and failed to live up to ICE's mission to protect U.S. citizens.

Wiping a tear from her eye, Ramos said the attack left her worrying about young children whose parents get deported.

"It was scary. The whole day I was shaky," she said. "It's not right. I feel like they owe us an apology."

mccrimmonk@RockyMountainNews.com