By: Nico Brambila | Colorado Politics
The federal government has signed a five-year contract with private prison company GEO Group that will effectively double Colorado’s immigration detention capacity to about 2,700 beds.
Signed July 9, the contract comes a year after the Trump administration told Colorado’s congressional delegation it planned to reopen the shuttered Hudson Correctional Facility as an immigration detention center.
The deal is worth up to $528.6 million, federal contracting records show.
Located about 30 miles northeast of Denver in Weld County, the Hudson Correctional Facility is a medium-security prison that closed a decade ago.
The prison is operated by the GEO Group, while the Highlands REIT Inc. — a real estate investment firm — owns it.
“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,” George C. Zoley, GEO’s CEO and founder, said in a statement.
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