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.
Watch our report from July 2025 where we heard from town leaders about plans to bring an ICE detention center to Hudson 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.”
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.
It’s not yet clear if other facilities in Colorado will also become new immigration detention centers.
Last year, the American Civil Liberties Union 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.
In a statement later Monday, officials from the Town of Hudson said they had not yet received “detailed operational information directly from federal agencies” about how GEO Group plans to use the Big Horn Correctional Facility.
Among details not yet shared with the town: A confirmed operational timeline of the facility, the number of detainees or facility staff, impacts to traffic and transportation, utility demand projections, medical or emergency service coordination needs, and the length or duration of operations.
“While the Town does not have authority to approve or deny federal use of this private facility, … the Town will continue seeking verified information so residents can be informed as facts become available,” officials said.
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 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.
