Colorado sues to stop private immigration detention center in Hudson

Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser has asked a federal court in Denver to stop a private immigration detention center from opening at a former prison in Hudson. The state says the federal government never studied what a facility of that size would do to a town of about 1,600 people.

Weiser filed the lawsuit Sept. 29 against the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the agencies’ leaders, according to The Colorado Sun. The suit asks a judge to throw out the five-year, $528.7 million contract the government signed with the GEO Group to operate the nearly 1,200-bed facility, known as the Big Horn immigration detention center. Hudson is about 30 miles northeast of Denver along Interstate 76.

What the lawsuit claims

The lawsuit says DHS and ICE did not consider the environmental effects of the facility, did not provide information to the public and did not arrange for civil immigration detention only in places appropriate for it, according to the attorney general’s announcement. The state argues those failures violate the National Environmental Policy Act, the Administrative Procedure Act and the Immigration and Nationality Act.

Because the agencies have not conducted any public environmental analysis, the state has no information about the extent of the work and repairs needed to make the former Hudson Correctional Facility suitable to house people again, the complaint says. The facility closed 12 years ago, according to the attorney general’s office. The Sun reports that it closed in 2013 after holding a maximum of 871 inmates from Alaska.

The state filed a motion for a preliminary injunction with the complaint. It asks the court to set aside the GEO Group contract, halt construction and renovation at the site, and order the agencies to prepare an environmental assessment or environmental impact statement and document their compliance with federal immigration law.

“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 the announcement. He also said the proposed facility “would nearly double the size of the town’s population.”

Water, wildlife and public services

The lawsuit says the facility could affect wildlife in the area, including deer and the Preble’s meadow jumping mouse, the Sun reports. The state also expects the facility to put added burdens on public services and infrastructure, including Hudson’s water system. The suit notes that the town believes it will need to add an extra well to serve the facility.

Hudson is not a party to the lawsuit and is not taking a side in the legal fight, the Sun reports. Town Manager Bryce Lange declined to comment on the state’s suit but said the town is confident its water and wastewater utilities can serve existing and future demands.

Federal response and other suits

A DHS statement said the lawsuit was not really about the environment. “It’s about trying to stop President Trump from making America safe again,” the agency said, adding that “the left didn’t care about the mountains of litter that illegal aliens dumped on ranches and riverbeds during Biden’s border crisis.”

The state’s suit is the third challenge to the planned facility since GEO announced the contract in July. Earlier in September, Green Latinos and the Colorado Immigration Rights Coalition filed a federal lawsuit alleging the agencies failed to conduct an environmental review under the National Environmental Policy Act. In July, the immigrant rights group Together Colorado sued in state court, claiming the property is not zoned for a detention center and that Hudson ignored its own land use code by letting GEO open the facility without a special permit.

The attorney general’s office notes that a large share of ICE detainees are held in facilities owned or operated by private prison companies such as GEO Group, which also owns and operates the Aurora ICE detention facility. The office says DHS has reviewed the environmental effects of detention facilities under its control in Texas in the past, and that prior reviews of facilities used to house ICE detainees extended to contractor-operated sites. It also says nothing in recent congressional funding bills exempts ICE from the National Environmental Policy Act or any other legal requirement.

Weiser said the center could be on track to open by the end of the year, according to the Sun.