By Amanda Pampuro | Courthouse News Service
Months before reports of tuberculosis infecting a detainee at an immigration detention center in Aurora, state lawmakers sought to expand the public health department’s ability to inspect the facility.
DENVER (CN) — A federal judge granted a preliminary injunction Thursday blocking a Colorado law that sought to expand the state public health agency’s ability to inspect an immigrant detention facility in Aurora.
“HB-1276 applies only to civilian detention centers, of which there is one,” Chief U.S. District Judge Daniel Domenico wrote in the opinion. “Though Colorado argues that the law only brings GEO into compliance with existing state regulations applied to other detention facilities, that law singles out this one category of facility for a separately defined set of restrictions and rulemaking.”
Colorado lawmakers passed HB26-1276, the Protect Safety of Individuals Who Are Immigrants Act, expanding the state’s ability to hold unannounced inspections at immigrant detention facilities and creating a $50,000 civil penalty for denying the state access. The law would also require operators of detention facilities to provide the state with annual reports disclosing detainee health issues from pregnancies to chronic conditions and disabilities.
The GEO Group, which the federal government contracts to run a 1,500-person ICE detention center in Aurora, sued Colorado in federal court on June 8. Citing the intergovernmental immunity doctrine, GEO asked the federal judge to block the state law from taking effect.
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