HUDSON — Demonstrators lined up outside a defunct private prison in northern Colorado on Wednesday afternoon, protesting the facility’s likely future use as a new federal immigration detention center.
The former Hudson Correctional Facility in the small Weld County town of Hudson, about 30 miles northeast of Denver, was identified last year by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement as a likely site to be used to detain more immigrants in Colorado.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado sued ICE multiple times last year, forcing the agency to turn over documents that revealed plans for additional detention centers in the state. The most recent document release, earlier this month, confirms ICE is moving forward with plans to turn the former private prison into what the agency is calling the Big Horn Correctional Facility, said Tim Macdonald, the ACLU of Colorado’s legal director.
The documents show ICE inked a six-month deal last year worth nearly $40 milion with contractor GEO Group for services at the Hudson prison. They also reference the Huerfano County Correctional Facility, another former private prison, in Walsenburg, that has been eyed by ICE for expanded detention capacity in Colorado.
However, most details, including operational timelines and contracts, were redacted or withheld, Macdonald said.
“They’re trying to hide what they’re doing,” Macdonald said in an interview with The Denver Post. “We know that ICE is trying to do this in secret. We’re seeing ICE act in renegade ways across the country. Shooting people, killing Renée Good in Minneapolis, shooting people in Portland. ICE has gone rogue… We don’t know exactly how they’re proceeding with the expanded detention here, but we know they’re trying to do it in the dark without transparency, even though they’re using our public taxpayer dollars to do this. They should be accountable to us, the people.”
Representatives of Highlands REIT, the Chicago-based real estate investment trust that owns the Hudson Correctional Facility, could not be reached for comment. A spokesperson for ICE did not respond to a request for comment from The Post.
Weld County resident Jenifer Montes helped organize Wednesday’s protest, which was expected to include demonstrators speaking at a 6 p.m. Hudson Town Council meeting. An October protest of the facility drew about 70 people.
By the time Wednesday afternoon’s demonstration started at 4:30 p.m., a crowd of about 75 had assembled.
Jody Whitmore, a 67-year-old Frederick resident, held a sign reading “No to concentration camps in Hudson.”
Whitmore attended the Hudson protest in October and returned Wednesday even angrier than before, she said, after witnessing the recent ICE activity in Minneapolis.
“It is disgusting,” Whitmore said. “It’s out of control. The federal government is out of control and they want to ramp it up even more.”
Whitmore said the inhumane treatment of detained immigrants was why she likened the facilities to concentration camps. “Plus, they’re wasting our taxpayer dollars,” she said
Gina McAfee, 71, said there were so many misconceptions about immigrants. Growing up in Greeley, she knew many immigrants and has worked in the immigrant rights space for about 10 years.
When McAfee learned about the Hudson ICE facility, she felt compelled to protest.
“I was appalled,” she said. “The inhumane treatment currently going on at the Aurora detention center is just shocking. The fact they want to add another facility is just appalling.”
Protesters held signs expressing their distaste for ICE, President Donald Trump and the federal government. Signs included: “ICE is Trump’s militia and we do not want them here,” “Keep the immigrants. Deport the racists” and a neon sign reading “Tacos good, Pedos bad.”
Town council largely mum
Hudson Mayor Joe Hammock did not respond to a request for comment. The Post also reached out to the members of the Hudson Town Council — Matt Cole, Candace Nolf, Lisa Marie Buesgens, Zachary Reyes, Don Post and Rachel E. Thwaites — asking what they knew about ICE taking over the former prison and their thoughts on the situation.
Only Reyes responded, saying in an email that as a non-partisan elected official, his personal viewpoint was “irrelevant.” He said Hudson has not been approached by the federal government or the GEO Group — which also runs ICE’s current 1,530-capacity detention center in Aurora — regarding permits or use of the facility.
“I will always act with the wishes of the people of Hudson,” Reyes wrote. “…The town has minimal say in what the owner of the property chooses to do with their property. The town can only enforce code requirements set forth with current ordinances in effect both locally and with the state. … We as the council know just as much about the rumors as you, the public, knows.”
Macdonald said a review of the town documents suggests Hudson officials believe ICE is moving ahead with the detention center, which could open within a year. Hudson has about 1,600 residents, and the new ICE facility would effectively double the town’s population with an expected capacity of around 1,300 detainees.
“That doesn’t even include workers, so the demand for water will go through the roof, and we know from their planning documents they’re concerned about how they’re going to manage that and what that will mean for existing water uses in Hudson,” Macdonald said.
The documents turned over to the ACLU also revealed:
ICE last year issued a contract to the GEO Group for more than $39 million for six months of services, between April and October, at the Hudson facility ICE issued another contract for the GEO Group dated Dec. 1 for the Hudson facility, but redacted the terms and pricing ICE redacted more than 100 pages of documents from late August that appeared to be in justification of why the agency should award a sole contract to the GEO Group for the Hudson facility without full and open competition A contract for the Southern Ute Indian Adult Detention Center, valued at less than $100,000, was submitted to the Department of Homeland Security for approval in August. No details about whether the proposal was approved could be located. Documents previously obtained by The Washington Post indicated ICE planned to add 28 beds to the existing Southern Ute detention center in Ignacio. Another potential detention site, the former Huerfano County Correctional Facility in Walsenburg, was declared “funded,” but no additional details about the facility could be found in the documentsMacdonald said the addition of any ICE detention centers in Colorado would be “a travesty.”
“They’re housing people who have in large measure never been accused or convicted of any crimes whatsoever,” Macdonald said. “They are people who have come to this country for a better life, and the way we treat them reflects on the values we have as a society. When we mistreat immigrants who are in civil detention, that’s a sign of how our government is treating all of us, so people should care when our government abuses the civil rights of anyone in our community.”
‘Nobody should have to live in fear’
Before this summer, Montes wasn’t an activist, but increasing ICE activity lit a fire beneath her. Now, the 34-year-old is organizing and leading protests against the proposed ICE facility that could open in her county.
“I don’t want to be on the wrong side of history,” Montes said. “I don’t want to look back and say all this happened before my eyes and I just stayed silent just because I was scared of some white guy.”
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Protesters rally against new ICE facility north of Denver as details remain murky Colorado launches platform to report misconduct by federal officers Trump’s ICE force is sweeping America. Billions in his tax and spending cuts bill are paying for it What we know about Renée Good, the Colorado-born woman killed by ICE agent in Minneapolis ‘Grassroots’ movement of local residents keeps a watchful eye at Denver immigration courtMontes’ parents came to the United States illegally from Mexico, but now have legal status. Her family moved to Colorado in 2007, a year after one of the largest immigration raids in U.S. history played out at a Greeley meatpacking plant.
“We knew about it, and I have had family that worked there and it’s something you always think about,” Montes said.
When ICE activity ramped up across the nation and in Colorado last year under the Trump administration’s push for mass deportations, Montes said she was too scared to speak up.
Then she heard rumors about the former private prison in Hudson being repurposed into a new ICE detention center.
“That’s way too close for comfort,” Montes said. “I wanted to be more involved and help the community also be prepared instead of just living in fear because nobody should have to live in fear.”
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