HUDSON — The fate of a shuttered Colorado prison that federal officials have targeted to become a new immigration detention center remained unclear Tuesday as U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet unveiled plans to try to slow the opening of more facilities in the state.
Standing outside the Hudson facility’s empty parking lot, Bennet, who is running to become the Democratic nominee for governor, said he would partner with state legislators to . The law gives local governments more regulatory and planning authority over matters of statewide impact.
Those powers have typically been used for large projects that happen within a county or city’s boundaries — like airports, mining or water infrastructure — but Bennet said he wanted to expand them to also allow local governments to “say no” to detention centers. He is running in the June 30 Democratic primary against Attorney General Phil Weiser.
“Colorado will not become home to Donald Trump’s cruel immigration agenda,” he said of the president from a lectern in front of the Hudson Correctional Facility.
Since last year, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have considered reopening the former private prison northeast of Denver for immigration detention.
If Bennet’s proposal became law and could be used to slow down the opening of new facilities, it would require county officials to make use of it. Kelly Flenniken, the executive director of Colorado Counties Inc., a local government association, did not return messages seeking comment Tuesday, nor did a statewide group that represents county attorneys.
Bennet acknowledged that it “would be very hard” to stop the Hudson facility from reopening as a detention center, echoing what . The facility — and the land it sits upon — is privately owned and has already served as a prison.
Colorado is home to one immigration detention center, owned and operated by the private prison company Geo Group. But as part of Trump’s plan to arrest and deport millions of immigrants without legal status, the federal government has sought to dramatically increase its detention capacity nationwide. ICE has said it wants to add hundreds more beds in Colorado.
Planning documents obtained last year by the Washington Post identified two shuttered private prisons — in Hudson and Walsenburg — as expansion sites, and members of Colorado’s congressional delegation were told in August that ICE planned to open the Hudson prison, which has been closed for more than a decade.
also indicated that ICE issued a nearly $40 million letter contract to the Geo Group last June for the facility, which ICE calls the “Big Horn Correctional Facility.”
But months later, the fate of the facility remains unclear.
Bryce Lange, Hudson’s town manager, said Tuesday that he recently called Highlands REIT, the real estate investment trust that is the owner of the dormant prison, for an update because he’d heard rumors about its status.
“The owner stated that they don’t have a contract signed with anyone to open an ICE detention facility in Hudson,” Lange wrote in an email. He added that he believed the company was interested in leasing the space “to any entity that might be interested — including the state of Colorado, if they need additional capacity.”
The Highlands trust, which is based in Chicago, did not return a message seeking comment Tuesday. In an unsigned statement, the Department of Homeland Security said the agency has “no new detention centers to announce at this time.”
state or local officials from entering into agreements with private companies to open or operate immigration detention centers, or from selling companies’ land for that purpose. said that if he was elected, he would issue an executive order “reconfirming Colorado’s prohibition on the use of state land for new immigration detention centers.”
Earlier this year, Colorado lawmakers requiring regular and more intensive inspections of detention facilities. That bill is awaiting outgoing Gov. Jared Polis’ signature for passage into law.
