HUDSON, Colo. — A defunct correctional facility in Weld County is set to become the second U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in the state of Colorado, after GEO Group officials announced Monday they had signed a multiyear contract with the Trump administration to expand their foothold in the Centennial State.
The long-awaited agreement, which Denver7 first reported on last year, will add about 1,200 beds to the more than 1,500 beds already in operation at the ICE detention facility in Aurora.
Denver7 reporter Maggie Bryan went to Hudson to get community reaction. Watch her report in the video below:
Located about 30 miles northeast of Denver, the former Big Horn Correctional Facility in Hudson operated for about five years before shutting down in 2014.
The facility is owned by Chicago-based Highlands Real Estate Investment Trust and is expected to generate about $85 million in annual revenue in the first full year of operations, according to a news release from GEO Group.
“We expect that our company-leased Big Horn Facility in Colorado will play an important role in helping meet the need for increased federal immigration processing center bedspace,” said GEO Group CEO and founder George C. Zoley in a prepared statement. “We are proud of our 40-year public-private partnership with ICE, and we stand ready to continue to assist the federal government in meeting its immigration enforcement priorities.”
The Town of Hudson responded to the agreement in a two-page community update on Monday, stressing the town does not have authority to approve or block federal immigration detention operations at the site because it is privately owned by Highlands REIT.
Town leaders said they have not received several key details from federal agencies, including when operations could begin, how many detainees or staff may be involved, potential traffic impacts, utility demands, or emergency service needs. Town officials acknowledged residents have strong opinions about the proposed detention operations and said their focus will remain on transparency, public safety, and protecting local resources.
Hudson Town Councilmember Zachary Reyes told Denver7 in an emailed statement he believes the town is prepared for the amount of water and wastewater the facility will use, and said he expects transparency from facility operators.
"I would greatly appreciate the operators of the facility to have transparency with the residents of Hudson as well as an off hands approach when it comes to federal law enforcement with the residents of Hudson," said Reyes.
Speaking to Denver7 last year about plans to expand immigration detention capacity in Colorado, both the town’s mayor and manager said they were apolitical about ICE’s presence in their jurisdiction.
"We are a small population of 1,650 people, so to think we would be able to move the needle one way or the other with an ICE facility coming here, it's just not realistic," said Hudson Town Manager Bryce Lange.
Tim Macdonald, the legal director of American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado, said the nonprofit was disappointed about the signed contract between the GEO Group and ICE.
"Everyone across our state ought to be troubled that our federal tax money are going to this for-profit company that has an incentive to push a mass deportation agenda," said Macdonald.
He said the nonprofit has spent the past 18 months requesting records from ICE to learn more about plans to convert the Hudson Correctional Facility into an ICE detention center.
"We had to sue them to get documents about their plans at at the Hudson facility and to expand immigration detention here in Colorado, and they fought us every step of the way," he said.
Last year, the ACLU obtained documents showing several companies had submitted pitches to convert five other facilities to detention sites: Two in Colorado Springs, two in Walsenburg, and one in La Junta. It’s not yet clear if other facilities in Colorado will also become new immigration detention centers.
Hudson residents and some members of Colorado’s Democratic Congressional delegation have been outspoken about bringing an ICE facility to Hudson since plans were announced last year.
Back in February, U.S. Senators John Hickenlooper and Michael Bennet, along with Rep. Brittany Petersen, sent a joint letter to former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, asking her to abandon those plans, citing concerns with lack of oversight and reduced access to legal representation for detained individuals.
In a statement sent to Denver7 a day after this story was first published, a DHS spokesperson said the contract with the Hudson correctional facility will strengthen "ICE's ability to implement the Administration’s immigration enforcement priorities, restore integrity to the nation’s immigration system, and protect public safety," and added the Trump administration encourages immigrants to come to the U.S. legally. "If not, you will be arrested and deported without a chance to return."
In separate social media posts Monday, Bennet and Hickenlooper expressed their concerns about the new facility, and said they would fight to stop the Hudson ICE detention center from opening.
Denver7's Maggie Bryan contributed to this report.
