By Anna Alejo | CBS Colorado
Just days after the passage of President Trump’s budget bill allocating $45 billion to Immigration and Customs Enforcement to expand detention facilities, the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado made public documents submitted by private prison operators seeking to sign contracts with the federal government. The ACLU says the government provided the documents in response to its lawsuit filed in April.
The Trump administration says it plans to build capacity for 100,000 ICE detention beds nationwide.
Locations offered for new ICE detention centers in Colorado include Walsenberg, Colorado Springs, Hudson, and La Junta.
“We sued the federal government because they were hiding these documents about their intent to expand ICE detention in Colorado. Because of the lawsuit, they’ve now provided at least some of these documents, and it provides important transparency for the people of Colorado,” said Tim Macdonald, legal director at ACLU of Colorado.
A spokesman for ICE said, “U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s enhanced enforcement operations and routine daily operations have resulted in a significant number of arrests of criminal aliens that require greater detention capacity. While we cannot confirm individual pre-decisional conversations, we can confirm that ICE is exploring all options to meet its current and future detention requirements.”
GEO, which already operates the Aurora ICE Processing Facility, is proposing adding 128 more beds at its Aurora facility (currently with 1360 beds) and 700 more at its Cheyenne Mountain Center. The GEO proposal states, “The GEO-owned and operated Cheyenne Mountain Center is located in Colorado Springs, and strategically situated close to all necessary facility and detainee support services.”