Three days after a federal judge called the conditions in the Aurora immigration detention center “abhorrent,” Colorado’s four Democratic U.S. House members conducted a planned tour Monday and said they left with more questions than answers.
The visit was the first by lawmakers since U.S. Rep. Jason Crow was denied access to the privately run facility last month. On Monday, were all on lockdown during the visit, said the lawmakers told reporters afterward. Crow, whose district includes Aurora, was joined by U.S. Reps. Joe Neguse, Diana DeGette and Brittany Pettersen.
Despite a federal law allowing for unannounced congressional visits, a new policy instituted by U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement required the lawmakers to give seven days’ notice.
They said the required notice limited their ability to judge the reality of the day-to-day conditions in the facility, which is run by the GEO Group.
“I’ve been in a lot of correctional facilities in my life, and if you have to give seven days’ notice, they clean up pretty good,” DeGette said. “And we were told (by detainees) that the people in there were told to clean up and to spiff up and to make things look good. I’d like to see what happens normally in that facility.”
Steve Kotecki, a Denver-based ICE spokesman, did not respond to a request for comment on preparations for the congressional visit.
Crow said he’d toured the facility nine times before, and information was more tightly guarded this time than on any of his previous visits. Senior ICE personnel were not present during the visit, the legislators said, and they were told that staff could not provide information about the prison’s detainees, such as how many had a criminal record.
ICE data shows that while immigration arrests have surged this year, most of the people arrested in Colorado had no prior criminal convictions.
The visit came as Neguse, Crow and 10 of their colleagues are suing the federal government, arguing that the seven-day notice requirement violates federal law. They asked a judge last week to immediately suspend the policy.
Advocates and attorneys elsewhere in the United States have raised concerns about conditions in ICE detention facilities. Last week, was overcrowded and unsanitary.
On Friday, a U.S. District Court judge in Colorado called the Aurora facility’s conditions “abhorrent” as part of legal efforts to release an immigrant who’s been in ICE custody for more than 600 days (with a deportation interlude).
The detained immigrant, Dennis Arostegui-Maldonado, testified that 80 people are housed in a 750-square-foot space in the facility; that ibuprofen is the only medication available for sick detainees; and that the building’s air conditioning regularly fails but staff members refuse to open doors to allow in fresh air. The immigrant, who has mental health conditions, has been outside of the facility only once — for a court hearing on Aug. 1 — since late 2024.
Senior Judge William J. Martinez ruled that federal authorities must give Maldonado a bond hearing.
On Monday, DeGette said she met with Jeanette Vizguerra, an immigrant-rights activist who’s been detained in the facility since her arrest outside her workplace in March. DeGette has that would give Vizguerra lawful residency in the country, and she said she handed Vizguerra a copy of the bill.
All four lawmakers also met with another detainee. Pettersen said posters in the facility encouraged detainees to self-deport — but there was little to no information about what the process entailed.
“I would love to know who is being detained in the system,” Crow said. “What types of people are they holding in our community?
