Six Colorado facilities pitched for possible ICE detention expansion by private companies, records show

Several companies have floated at least six Colorado facilities as potential sites to expand detention for undocumented immigrants in the state as the federal government ramps up its mass-deportation efforts.

Documents submitted to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement have pitched options that include two proposed sites in Colorado Springs, according to records obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union. The submittals were in response to a request for information posted by the agency’s Denver field office in February.

ICE wanted to add 850 to 950 new beds within two hours’ drive of either its Denver field office or its 10 satellite offices elsewhere in Colorado and Wyoming.

The details of the proposals were obtained by the ACLU through a public records request and Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. The organization publicized the documents Wednesday.

The only ICE facility in the state, a detention center operated by the GEO Group in Aurora, can hold up to 1,532 people but is contracted for 1,360. Its average daily population as of mid-June was 1,159, according to TRAC, a Syracuse University-based group that tracks ICE operations.

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The February solicitation sought information about potential expansion options rather than firm proposals, leaving it up to ICE to decide how to proceed.

The potential sites outlined in the submittals include:

• The Huerfano County Correctional Center in Walsenburg in southern Colorado, which is owned by the private prison company CoreCivic. According to the ACLU, the onetime state prison closed in 2010 and had a capacity of 752 people.
• The Cheyenne Mountain Center in Colorado Springs, which closed in 2020 and is owned by the GEO Group.
• The Hudson Correctional Facility northeast of Denver, which is owned by the real estate investment trust Highlands REIT. It was previously a private prison, also run by the GEO Group, according to the ACLU.
• The former Boys’ Ranch facility in La Junta, owned by the Baptiste Group. The company has run migrant facilities elsewhere and faced allegations in Tennessee of sexual misconduct by staff there.
• A former skilled nursing facility in Colorado Springs, which is also owned by the Baptiste Group.
• Another site in Walsenburg owned by Apex Site Services, which builds temporary structures for the military and disaster relief. However, the company offered to construct a “a soft-sided facility at any location 20 acres or more that is sufficient for ICE” or to “make modifications to existing hard structures,” according to the documents.

Another group, Begini Howard Private Equity, sent ICE an email to express its “keen interest” in submitting a proposal, though the documents don’t include any more concrete plans from the company. J&J Maintenance Inc. also submitted a plan, according to the records. Nearly all of its proposed details are redacted, though it references Aurora and the number of hospitals in the city.

In its proposal, the GEO Group wrote that its contract to run the Aurora facility includes an unfunded line item for the 700-bed Cheyenne Mountain Center and that the company proposed “activation of the facility to serve the Denver Enforcement and Removal Operations field office requirements.” It also noted that its Aurora center has “an additional 128 general population beds” that would be available for ICE’s use.

ICE’s request for information had sought “available detention facilities for single adult populations (male and female),” complete with segregation units, infirmaries and local hospital care. It said it wanted proposed facilities to house low-, medium- and high-security “adult noncitizens.”

The submittals include the distances from the sites to nearby hospitals, airports, bus stations and highways, as well as the availability of nearby pro bono legal services. The proposed capacity for some of the facilities is redacted.