AG Weiser Sues to Block Planned 1,200 Bed ICE Detention Center in Hudson

By Natalia Escalante and Maggie Bryan | Denver7

HUDSON, Colo. — Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser has filed a lawsuit to stop plans for an immigration detention center to open at a former prison in Hudson.

The Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement signed a five-year contract with the GEO group in July to open a detention center at the the former Hudson Correction Facility, which is about 30 mile northeast of Denver. Weiser says the contract is valued at over $500 million. The prison operated for about five years before closing in 2014.

Federal officials say they planned to reopen it as a 1,200-bed private immigration detention facility called the Big Horn.

Weiser on Tuesday announced that a lawsuit has been filed in the federal district court in Denver to stop the facility from opening. The lawsuit alleges DHS and ICE ignored their legal duties of considering possible environmental and residential impacts, providing the public with information and ensuring the location was appropriate.

“Coloradans are deeply worried about plans to open a new immigrant detention facility in Hudson to carry out the Trump administration’s inhumane—and often illegal—mass deportation scheme. Despite the fact that the proposed facility would nearly double the size of the town’s population, the federal government has failed to prepare the necessary analysis of the facility’s impact on the local community and resources. We’re asking the court to stop any further activities to open and operate the Hudson site until DHS and ICE conduct the legal analysis required by law,” Weiser said in a statement.

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