Before now, the 21-year-old from Littleton has never felt like she was in danger while attending weekly protests outside the Aurora immigration detention center – that is, before a worker at the facility allegedly shot her in the foot as she was walking away from a confrontation after a protest Thursday night.

Landis said she knew protests could get violent, but it felt like something she’s only seen online.

“You prepare yourself for all the outcomes that can come, but did I expect it to happen? No. Did I think I would be in danger at that event? No,” she said Wednesday, shortly after leaving a court hearing for 42-year-old Brandon Booth, the man accused of shooting her.

Aurora police said Booth, who works for private prison operator Geo Group, was standing with a group of coworkers near their vehicles along Nome Street because the demonstration was preventing them from getting into the facility to start their shifts.

Officers already at the scene said the workers, Landis and another woman with Landis started verbally sparring as the women walked by, with the women shouting insults at the Geo Group employees and threatening to run their license plates and find out where their children went to school.

Booth told police he got so angry about the threats that he pulled out a gun and shot at the women as they walked away to scare them, hitting Landis in the back of the foot. He told police he did not intend to shoot anyone, according to his arrest affidavit.

Landis said she saw Booth holding something in a bag on his chest and started feeling threatened, which is when she and her friend turned and walked away.

“I felt the burning and I looked at my foot and saw the blood, and that¶¶Òőap when I called 911,” she said.

Booth fled the scene and was arrested a short time later.

Colorado prosecutors on Wednesday charged him with first-degree assault and attempted assault, both felonies, the district attorney’s office said.

The DA’s office did not file attempted murder, felony menacing or weapons charges, which Aurora police had also accused Booth of in his arrest affidavit.

Booth appeared in Adams County District Court in handcuffs and a black-and-white striped jumpsuit on Wednesday afternoon and did not speak during the short hearing.

Landis’ attorney, Siddhartha Rathod of the Denver firm , said he, his client and his firm commend the DA’s office for bringing charges and support the decision.

Landis said she’s still trying to process everything that¶¶Òőap happened in the past week. Political activism is something she learned early in life, she said, by going to demonstrations like the 2017 Women’s March with her parents.

“If you see something wrong, you say that it¶¶Òőap wrong, you report it or find a way to fix that problem,” she said.

Landis said she’s not deterred from protesting because of her injury – if anything, it¶¶Òőap the opposite.

“It honestly makes me want to do more,” she said, adding that she doesn’t want to be used as an “example” of what happens when people protest.

“I want to be used as an advocate, a way for voices to be heard that need to be heard,” she said.

Landis also hopes what happened doesn’t discourage people in the community from speaking out.

“Keep being out there,” she said. “Know how important it is to speak for what you believe in.”

Booth remains in custody on a $100,000 bail and is set to appear in court on Aug. 13.

Re: “Tuberculosis inquiry remains stuck as officials press for access,” July 21 news story.

I was appalled but not surprised to read that the Geo Group at the ICE processing facility in Aurora is stalling or refusing to provide necessary information about a tuberculosis case or cases to state and county health officials so that a proper communicable disease investigation can be completed and additional cases averted. A case of a potentially fatal illness in a 1,530-bed facility is a major cause for concern. The Geo Group’s assertion that the case in question was treated and cleared is no substitute for a public health investigation, and Geo’s refusal to cooperate with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment¶¶Òőap directive to allow the inspectors into the facility is unacceptable and dangerous. Geo seems to be operating a rogue operation in Aurora, following its own rules and resisting state laws. Why it is being allowed to skirt the law, risking the health of inmates and workers, is a profound mystery.

Nancy Vaughan, Denver

Trump’s priorities are askew

Re: “Trump renews election attacks,” July 17 news story.

This past week, President Donald Trump spoke to the nation. He did not discuss the war in Iran, the inflation that comes with it or the billions of dollars required to replenish our military stocks. He did not address the most recent killings by ICE agents. He did not talk about the kitchen table economics or the disaster relief funds that he has held up. He did not talk about the fact that the U.S. debt is greater than the gross domestic product. No, all he talked about was his obsession with the lost 2020 election and the problems with our election process. A process that got him elected twice. And in his speech, he threatened to pull the licenses for NBC and CBS for not broadcasting his speech even though it was available on their streaming apps.

Does our president or his sycophants care about human life? Does he or his sycophants care about free speech? Does he or his sycophants care about the nation’s debt? Does he or his sycophants care about how you’re going to survive until your next paycheck?

I think not.

John Okada, Loveland

Not carrying Trump’s speech was a cover-up

Tonight, NBC and ABC refused to carry President Trump’s speech. Why? If even 50% of what he said is correct, I am sure the whole thing will be investigated by all the political pundits since he (Trump) claims it will be put out for all to see. It seems to me there has been a huge cover-up pulled on the American people. NBC gave a 20-second statement trying to cover their butt on the 9 O’clock news, but it said nothing.

I don’t want to revisit the 2020 election; we have heard that story way too often. The real question is, why are major networks trying to censor news? Are they controlled by parties that don’t want certain things to get out? Or, instead of being neutral, are they only willing to publish negative news on some and positive news on others? I know this much; I won’t be watching NBC or ABC. They can forget about me seeing ads for any companies spending money, trying to get me to buy anything.

Duane Ross, Aurora

Huckins’ art inspires climate action

Re: “Watching heaven burn,” July 19 features story.

Thanks to Ray Mark Rinaldi for describing the work of painter Shawn Huckins in the Sunday Post. Viewing wildfire through a partly drawn curtain serves up a powerful metaphor of our collective reaction to a warming planet. Our instinct is to turn away from the ongoing consequences of climate change, to close the curtains. The artist shows us that the “burn” cannot now be avoided — even a sliver of a view exposes us to the reality of an overheating planet. The next step is increasingly compelling: to step out of the room and take action to deal with the burning world.

 Phil Nelson, Golden

To send a letter to the editor about this article, submit online or check out our guidelines for how to submit by email or mail.

agents arrested 27-year-old Chantal Alejandra Morales Rojas, who is from Ecuador, on Monday, the confirmed to The Denver Post. The agency said she entered the U.S. on Oct. 20, 2024, and overstayed her visa, which allowed her to remain in the country until Jan. 4, 2025.

She remains in ICE custody “pending removal proceedings,” an unidentified DHS spokesperson said in an email to The Post on Wednesday.

A created to pay for Rojas’ legal fees said she lives in Oakland, California, and has a work permit. The crowdfunding campaign had raised more than $99,000 by Wednesday evening.

Woman is abducted by ICE at the Denver airport when trying to return home to Oakland. She’s detained by ICE at the Denver airport (Southwest Airlines), taken from the jetway and hustled into an unmarked van on the tarmac

— Sigurdur Nordal (@essenviews)

Alicia Dantzker, who lives in California and started the GoFundMe campaign, told The Post that she has known Rojas since 2023. Dantzker is close friends with the family who hosted Rojas as an au pair.

Dantzker was in Colorado with ultimate Frisbee players from across the country for the in Aurora. Rojas was an au pair for a family in the ultimate community, and came to Aurora to be with the kids and family she used to live with, Dantzker said.

Dantzker and Rojas were booked on the same flight back to Oakland on Monday. Dantzker said she went to fill her water bottle at the Southwest gate and came back to find Rojas terrified. A man had approached her and asked her to discuss her visa status, Dantzker said.

“We did not realize they were there targeting her specifically,” Dantzker said Wednesday. “We thought they were just asking her about her visa because she is a Latina woman. We thought she would be safe on the plane.”

More men showed up at the airport gate, staring at Rojas but standing a short distance away, Dantzker said. When it was time to board, Dantzker said an alarm sounded when Rojas scanned her boarding pass.

“Two men rushed up to us and corralled us into the jetway, and someone behind us started pushing us into the door to trap us inside,” Dantzker said.

Dantzker said she told the men to show their arrest warrant to a lawyer who was outside the door at the gate, but they did not. She began filming the incident and decided she should make as much noise as she could.

“I was thinking about how to make the most difference,” Dantzker said.

The video begins with Rojas and Dantzker in the Southwest jetway being confronted by federal agents in plain clothes. Dantzker tells the agents that Rojas’ lawyer is outside and advises Rojas not to speak to ICE.

“We’re going to be very nice to you,” the agent says to Rojas in the video before threatening to charge Dantzker with interfering with their proceedings.

that the Trump administration is increasingly using a once-obscure statute, , to charge people with impeding or assaulting federal officers. The ICE agent cites that statute in the Denver airport video. Punishments for the federal crime range from a fine to 20 years in prison.

In the video, Rojas is led through a door out to the tarmac while Dantzker shouts, “Help us! ICE is here!”

Other people waiting at the Southwest gate begin crowding around, pulling out their phones to film and looking out the windows onto the tarmac while Rojas was placed into a van and taken to the ICE detention facility in Aurora.

The federal agent says, “We’re being very nice. We’re being very respectful.”

Dantzker says: “(Expletive) you. This is (expletive) evil. You should be ashamed of yourself. Who gives a (expletive) if you’re being polite? (Expletive) you.”

A Southwest gate agent steps in and tells Dantzker, “If you are on this flight and you speak to them like that, you will not board this flight.”

“I don’t understand why Southwest needed to get involved with my involvement with ICE — to defend them,” Dantzker said.

Southwest Airlines told The Post on Wednesday that the company cannot comment on the details of law enforcement activities, but that DHS and the have access to all passenger information as part of their responsibilities to clear travelers at airport security checkpoints.

The airline may deny boarding to customers it deems disruptive or who otherwise display behavior that could threaten the safety of others, the airline said.

“Southwest complies with applicable state and federal law when asked to share information about customers,” Lynn Lunsford, a Southwest Airlines spokesperson, said in a statement. “The airline has provided guidance to employees to help ensure appropriate legal documentation is presented by law enforcement agencies prior to interactions in the gate areas. Southwest is committed to providing a safe travel experience for all customers and employees.”

The airline told The Post that Dantzker got to her destination that evening on a later flight. Dantzker said Southwest offered her another flight later that day, but that she did not feel comfortable flying that airline and took a different flight the next day.

“When I went back to the airport the next day to go to a different terminal, I could feel my heart racing,” Dantzker said. “It was scary, but I’m free and not in an ICE facility, so it’s nothing compared to what Chantal is going through.”

Dantzker said the Oakland nanny community was horrified after hearing about Chantal’s detention.

“No one took their kids to the park today because they’re just so afraid,” Dantzker said.

Dantzker described Rojas as kind, helpful and gentle.

“She loves the outdoors, she’s incredibly smart and so wise,” Dantzker said. “She’s a magical caretaker and just a really wonderful, thoughtful, incredibly calm person.”

When asked whether Rojas had a work permit and a pending immigration case, the unnamed ICE representative responded that work permits or pending legal cases do not confer “any type of legal status in the United States or prevent ICE from arresting or deporting an illegal alien from the country. … Each illegal alien receives due process.”

The GoFundMe page said Rojas was taken to an ICE detention facility. It was not immediately clear whether Rojas was being held at the run by .

Andrea Loya, executive director for local immigrant rights organization , said the group is worried about reported ICE activity at the airport as people wait for domestic flights.

“We have confirmed that this has been taking place since at least Wednesday night with a different woman being abducted outside of a Frontier flight,” Loya said. “ICE is showing that they will meet their number quotas by any means necessary.”

Denver airport officials, in an unsigned statement, acknowledged that “a number of federal agencies lawfully operate and have jurisdiction” at DIA and “are not required to inform the airport of their activity.”

Dantzker said it was clear the government has known where Rojas has been at every moment.

“There is no secrecy to how she’s living, and the idea they had to wait to trap her in a jetway in a Denver airport just reeks of cruelty and trying to terrorize people,” she said.

All of this comes as the U.S. Department of Homeland Security — under the direction of President Donald Trump — has scaled up a mass deportation effort that doesn’t only target criminals anymore and has begun a public dragnet for anyone with questionable legal status. The administration is expecting to detain so many people that DHS signed a $529 million contract with Geo Group to open a second Colorado facility to lock up 1,188 people in Hudson. The Aurora facility already holds 1,530 people.

We are skeptical, however, that meaningful oversight will come from a federal department that is in complete disarray, having burned through Kristi Noem in 18 months. Now the agency is led by Markwayne Mullin, a man who is refusing to publicly address the fact that under his watch immigration enforcement officers have shot and killed two unarmed people they were trying to detain during roadside stops in separate states.

What little oversight we will get of the Geo facility in Aurora and the new facility proposed for Hudson must come from Congress or from city, county and state officials.

U.S. Rep. Jason Crow has tried for years to hold the Geo Group accountable, writing a bill that actually became law requiring federal detention centers, even when privately owned, to allow members of Congress to tour facilities without giving prior notice. Geo Group still refused to allow Crow into the facility, so the Aurora congressman filed a lawsuit, getting a judicial order to allow him access.

Meanwhile, the Geo Group has refused to work with county and state health officials attempting to ascertain whether a single known case of tuberculosis in the facility this month could trigger a larger outbreak.

“Our priority remains obtaining the cooperation needed to do a communicable disease investigation,” Hope Shuler, a spokeswoman with the Division of Disease Control and Public Health Response, told The Denver Post. “(The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment) has also reassured the facility and federal officials that the information being requested is standard for this type of public health investigation.”

Gov. Jared Polis is attempting to meet with the company’s owners but has so far been unsuccessful.

The Geo Group, which was founded by George Zoley, the current CEO and chairman, responded to questions about the recent shooting and the tuberculosis case from The Denver Post on Wednesday afternoon.

“Aurora ICE Processing Center employees are not issued firearms inside the facility, and they are not permitted to bring personal firearms into the Center. They are also required to follow all applicable federal, state, and local laws. The Aurora ICE Processing Center is a federal immigration processing center that follows standards set by the federal government and operates under close federal government oversight,” wrote a spokesperson for the company. “The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) — working with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — has publicly confirmed that there are no active tuberculosis cases at the Center. We would refer you to DHS and ICE for any further questions.”

An employee of Geo Group lost his cool last week while trying to drive past protesters blocking the entrance into the Aurora detention center. Police accuse the man of pulling out his gun and shooting a protester who was walking away from the conflict.

The woman was hit by a bullet in the back of her foot and was taken to the hospital. She has said in interviews that none of the Geo employees present for the shooting stopped to render aid after she was shot, but Aurora police officers on the scene immediately responded to help and to pursue the shooter. He fled the scene and was later arrested on charges including attempted murder. Zoley has refused to comment on the shooting. Still, the company did put out a statement saying that the employee accused of attempted murder had been “placed on unpaid administrative leave and we will fully cooperate with law enforcement.”

We are grateful that the chief of police in Aurora has handled the case so far with transparency and clarity.

“Violence of any kind will not be tolerated in Aurora. Constitutional rights are a pivotal part of a just society — violence is not,” Aurora police Chief Todd Chamberlain said.

Protests at immigration detention centers are occurring across the nation and are becoming increasingly hostile. On July 4, 2025, an Alvarado, Texas, police officer was shot in the neck by a protester who was part of a group setting off fireworks and harassing detention center employees. . We urge protesters to remain peaceful at their Geo Group vigils, and we encourage them to stay loud and fearless.

We need this federally funded facility to be transparent about the safety, health and conditions for both its employees and its detainees – all of whom are humans deserving of humane conditions and safe working environments. Zoley should be out front personally working with state and local officials on these issues, and he should be explaining how he will improve the training and vetting of staff to prevent a future tragedy.

To send a letter to the editor about this article, submit online or check out our guidelines for how to submit by email or mail.

Updated July 22, 2026 at 1:06 p.m. This editorial was updated to include a response to questions from a Geo Group spokesperson that were sent Wednesday afternoon.

Jennifer Lucero-Alvarez, a spokeswoman for the Adams County Health Department, told The Denver Post in a statement that as of Monday, the private prison company Geo Group “has not provided all the information or access necessary for (the department) and Denver Health Tuberculosis Clinic to complete the public health investigation.”

That, despite the state’s top public health official issuing a directive last week that facility leaders allow inspectors to review medical records for the detainee who contracted the potentially fatal respiratory illness. Health officials also have said they want to look into unconfirmed reports of more TB cases in recent weeks.

Jill Hunsaker Ryan, the executive director of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, gave Geo until last Friday to let inspectors in.

But the deadline has come and gone. It did not spur the release of new information from the Geo Group or ICE, said Hope Shuler, a spokeswoman for the state agency’s . The company operates the 1,530-bed facility on behalf of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Gov. Jared Polis, she said, had requested a discussion with Geo officials but had not heard back.

“Our priority remains obtaining the cooperation needed to do a communicable disease investigation,” Shuler said. “CDPHE has also reassured the facility and federal officials that the information being requested is standard for this type of public health investigation.”

Meanwhile, that ICE said in a statement that a case of tuberculosis had been detected in the facility on June 25 and that the person who had contracted it was “treated, cleared, and removed from the country.” Neither ICE nor Geo Group responded to The Post’s request for comment Monday.

Tuberculosis, a potentially fatal illness, spreads through the air and typically affects a patient¶¶Òőap lungs, according to the .

The Adams County Health Department had issued a public health order on June 25 requiring GEO to “comply with Colorado public health laws governing tuberculosis investigations,” which includes allowing health officials to interview the case patient and others, look at medical records and get access to exposed individuals.

“We do not have direct communication from the facility to understand the situation inside,” Lucero-Alvarez said. “We remain concerned about individuals in the facility, including those who are detained and staff who might have been exposed.”

Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser said in a statement Monday that his office “stands ready to work with the governor’s office and state health officials to bring Geo into compliance with the law.”

“As a private company, Geo Group is required to comply with state health and safety regulations,” Weiser said. “The reported tuberculosis case at the ICE detention camp in Aurora is a serious public health issue and Geo must work with the state to investigate any potential outbreak or exposure to others.”

But what any enforcement action might look like — and when it might occur — wasn’t clear.

The investigation is at least the second public health probe into the Aurora facility this year, after Adams County officials sought more information about an alleged respiratory or gastrointestinal outbreak in January. That investigation didn’t identify an outbreak — though it, too, was frustrated by delays and resistance from officials at the facility.

Andrea Loya, executive director of Casa de Paz, said the people detained at ICE’s — run by private prison company — are having their mail opened and scanned, and they are given copies instead of the original material.

For example, Loya said someone who received a birthday card was presented with a black-and-white print-out of the front of the card. People are being mailed drawings from their loved ones, but given photocopied versions instead of the actual illustrations.

Additionally, Loya said a large amount of mail is being returned to senders without explanation. People used to be able to include self-addressed, stamped envelopes in their mail so the recipients could respond without having to buy marked-up stamps at the detention center’s commissary, but Loya said the stamped envelopes are now considered contraband and are being returned.

“There is a claim (that) if people don’t have the means, the facility will provide the stamps, but we know people have reported they are denied stamps,” Loya said. “The way the system tries to continually make money off people is not fair.”

Immigration advocacy organizations say they noticed the change beginning in April. ICE representatives did not answer an emailed question from The Denver Post about when these changes were introduced.

The practice of opening and scanning mail and delivering the scanned copies to detainees is common within prison settings, and is designed to prevent liquid drugs or other chemicals from being smuggled in.

In Colorado, depending on location and the offender’s status, some inmates receive scanned copies of their mail while others get original copies, according to the Colorado Department of Corrections handbook.

“This is not supposed to be like prison,” Loya said. “Geo claims these are housing facilities and not prisons. Most of the people in these facilities don’t have a criminal record. Quite frankly, it¶¶Òőap just an excuse for people to not get their mail. When that¶¶Òőap the one thing they have access to, that is unfortunate.”

Loya also said immigrants within the facility allege that staffers are opening their legal mail without them present, which goes against ICE protocol.

When reached for comment about the mail operations, Geo Group spokesman Christopher V. Ferreira referred The Post to ICE. An ICE representative did not answer specific questions about their mail policies, including whether staff members were improperly opening immigrants’ legal mail.

Natalie Petrucci, detention program deputy managing attorney at the , said their organization has also seen a change in immigrants’ mail services, including long delays in sending and receiving mail.

As people make their way through immigration court, oftentimes the only way they can present evidence to help obtain asylum or bond is via documents sent through the mail, like letters confirming they have housing or documented proof that they’ve paid taxes, Petrucci said. With mail held up in sometimes months-long backlogs, Petrucci said immigrants within the detention center have to attend court hearings without the evidence they need to advocate for themselves.

“People are having to move forward on their cases without their critical case evidence,” Petrucci said. “We know of examples where their mail didn’t make it in time for their court cases.”

In response to questions about why ICE switched its mail policies, what was now considered contraband and whether the facility was improperly opening immigrants’ legal mail, an unidentified ICE representative said via email that the answers could be found in a

The policy states: “This detention standard ensures that detainees shall be able to correspond with their families, the community, legal representatives, government offices and consular officials consistent with the safe and orderly operation of the facility.”

The policy also said the amount and content of correspondence detainees send at their own expense shall not be limited, except to protect public safety and that correspondence “shall be read or rejected only to protect the safe, secure and orderly operation of the facility, and detainees shall be notified in writing when correspondence is withheld in part or in full.”

The rules state legal mail will only be opened in the presence of detainees — a rule Loya said ICE was breaking.

One of ICE’s rules says incoming and outgoing mail shall be held no longer than 24 or 48 hours before distribution, excluding weekends, holidays or “exceptional circumstances.”

Loya showed The Post letters that were postmarked as having been sent to the Aurora detention facility in April and not returned to sender until late June, according to postal markings on the envelopes.

“It’s very clear they don’t know what they’re doing,” Loya said. “When you get mail in this facility, it gives you strength. When you take that away, it does affect that morale piece, and there’s really nothing else to do in detention.”

An employee at shot a woman in the foot Thursday night as she walked away from him after a “verbal confrontation” that followed a weekly protest outside the facility, police said.

Brandon Booth, 42, is facing an attempted-murder charge in connection with the shooting, which left the victim with injuries that police said were not life-threatening.

Booth is employed by private-prison operator , which is contracted by to run the 1,500-bed detention center. He told Aurora police he had worked there for three years, according to his arrest affidavit.

Geo Group issued a statement saying Booth was off-duty at the time of the shooting, which took place just before 7:30 p.m. “This individual has been placed on unpaid administrative leave, and we will fully cooperate with law enforcement.”

Officers with the arrested Booth on suspicion of attempted second-degree murder, first-degree assault, attempted first-degree assault, felony menacing and unlawfully carrying a concealed weapon after he fled the shooting in the 3100 block of North Nome Street. He is being held on $500,000 bail.

Before the shooting, Booth was waiting outside of his vehicle along Nome Street, along with other Geo Group employees, because the demonstration had stopped them from getting into the detention facility to go to work, according to the affidavit.

Two women walked by the group and started yelling at them, calling them “race traitors, Nazis and other derogatory terms commonly used against employees at the Geo facility,” Aurora police wrote in the affidavit.

The women shouted that they would run the employees’ license plates to find out where they lived and where their children attended school, according to the affidavit. Booth told police the women said they would “have people at (his) kids’ school.”

“Booth stated this threat regarding his children caused his anger level to reach ‘a 15 out of 10,'” Aurora detectives wrote in the affidavit.

Booth told investigators that he did not think the threats were viable or that his children were in immediate danger, and that he acted impulsively.

Police said Booth withdrew a “personally owned” pistol he was carrying in a cross-body bag. He walked into the middle of the street and shot at the women because he wanted to scare them, not injure them, and he tried to aim between them, Booth told police.

“Booth stated he is ‘a better shot’ than demonstrated and that if he had intended to hit someone, he would have,” Aurora detectives wrote.

After he fired, Booth told police, he realized “he had done some dumb (expletive),” and got into his Chevrolet Tahoe and drove away.

Multiple Aurora police and SWAT officers were on scene to monitor the protest and saw the shooting. Officers tied a tourniquet around the victim’s leg and pursued Booth as he fled. Police pulled Booth over and detained him near East 37th Avenue and Havana Street, less than two miles from the detention facility.

He was later arrested and booked into the Adams County jail.

The bullet hit the woman in the back of her foot, according to the arrest affidavit. On Thursday night, Aurora police spokeswoman Gabby Easterwood had described the injury as not life-threatening. The second woman was not injured.

‘Not a good person at all’

In a statement Friday, Aurora police Chief Todd Chamberlain called the shooting “a tragedy on all fronts” and pledged to investigate the case with the same transparency and integrity as all other shootings.

“Violence of any kind will not be tolerated in Aurora. Constitutional rights are a pivotal part of a just society — violence is not,” Chamberlain said.

Destiny Winter, Booth’s former sister-in-law, said in an interview Friday that Booth has long been a bully. She filed for a protection order against him in 2015 after she said he slammed her into a wall during an argument, giving her a concussion that temporarily erased three days of her memories, court records show.

“This is not a good person at all,” she said. “This is not a person who does the right thing or respects boundaries, especially of women and kids. This is not a person who is willing to hold himself accountable for mistakes. This is, ‘I am going to get you back.’ Retaliation, invoking fear so people don’t speak up.”

There is no record that Booth was charged with a crime in connection with the 2015 incident. He has a limited criminal history in Colorado, court records show. Booth pleaded guilty to driving while ability impaired, a misdemeanor, in 2010 and again in 2012. He was charged with careless driving in 2023 and pleaded guilty to lesser traffic offenses.

Winter said she has long fought to keep the man away from herself and her children.

“Very disrespectful, especially to women,” she said.  “He’ll make threats about, ‘I’ll crush you like a chip.’ 
Belittling, high and mighty, high ego is the personality and characteristics that I see.”

‘Out there protesting the system’

The attack took place shortly after a weekly protest ended outside the facility, said Andrea Loya, the executive director of , a nonprofit near the ICE detention facility that works with detainees.

Loya was not at the protest but said she had spoken with people who were present. She provided a photo and brief video of the scene after the shooting, showing law enforcement cordoning off a street outside the building.

Loya said one of her staff members learned of the shooting at around 7:40 p.m. while on a call with other advocates. The staff member then heard screams, Loya said.

Protesters regularly gather outside the detention center. The facility has been a lightning rod for protests, and it drew additional scrutiny this week amid a standoff with state and local health officials seeking to investigate a tuberculosis infection identified in a detainee last month.

Thursday was the first time an act of violence marred the vigils outside the detention center, said Jennifer Piper, program director for the .

The protesters generally aren’t hostile toward the guards — who are working long hours and without adequate protective equipment during a possible tuberculosis outbreak — but want to hold Geo Group accountable for harm caused by understaffing, she said.

“We’re not out there to protest the guards themselves,” she said. “We’re out there protesting the system.”

On Friday, following Booth’s arrest, Casa de Paz’s Loya said the shooting raises further concerns about ICE’s new contract with Geo Group to reopen a former prison in Hudson, northeast of Denver, for use as a second major immigrant detention center in Colorado.

“We are deeply concerned that people who clearly don’t have the emotional capacity to deal with potential conflict are handling human lives, and they will expand to Hudson,” she said. “Human life is not valued by this corporation or its employees.”

Aurora police said that anyone with information about the shooting should call Metro Denver Crime Stoppers at 720-913-7867.

In the letter sent Tuesday evening, Jill Hunsaker Ryan, the executive director of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, also asked the Aurora facility’s warden and health administrator to allow inspectors to review medical records for the detainee who contracted . A positive test result was identified late last month.

She directed officials to provide facility access to inspectors investigating the case, as well as records for other individuals who have been screened for TB and the information necessary to determine the disease’s potential spread.

By Wednesday evening, a CDPHE spokeswoman said facility officials had not yet responded to the requests.

The escalation came amid a nearly three-week standoff between Adams County health officials and the Aurora facility’s operators and federal officials — who, local officials say, have blocked investigators from interviewing detainees, inspecting the facility and reviewing records. Adams County officials issued a public health order last month seeking that information after the Geo Group, which operates the facility, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which has ultimate control over it, refused to cooperate.

“These barriers prevent public health officials from determining the scope of potential exposure and taking appropriate steps to protect detainees, employees, contractors, visitors, people who have been transferred or released, and others who may have been exposed,” Hunsaker Ryan wrote to the facility’s leaders in the letter. “Immediate cooperation is necessary for the investigation to proceed.”

A spokesman for Geo Group did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment Wednesday afternoon. Representatives for ICE and the Department of Homeland Security told The Denver Post earlier this week that there were no active tuberculosis cases in the 1,530-bed facility, though they did not respond when asked if that meant officials had moved any individual who had tested positive.

The agencies have not publicly acknowledged the positive test, which health officials said they identified on June 22 using samples taken from the facility.

In a Wednesday statement to The Post, Gov. Jared Polis said he was “deeply concerned by the reports of active Tuberculosis at the GEO facility in Aurora and the inability for local public health to do their jobs because of interference from the facility.”

“We are focused on protecting public health and urge the GEO Group to let Adams County Public Health do their jobs to investigate this alleged outbreak, including providing any necessary testing and treatment to prevent disease spread,” he wrote.

Immigration attorneys and advocates have told The Post that a number of detainees in the facility have been tested for TB in recent weeks and that at least one person had been removed from the facility. Because of Geo’s and ICE’s refusal to provide full access to the facility, health officials have said they cannot confirm reports of additional cases or quarantines.

Hunsaker Ryan’s letter lists the state laws that underpin the state’s access and information requests, as well as health inspectors’ legal responsibility to investigate TB cases. She did not say what the state will do if Geo and ICE do not comply by Friday.

CDPHE spokeswoman Hope Shuler wrote in an email to The Post that agency leaders still hoped facility officials would respond to the letter, adding that their goal was “to work collaboratively with GEO.”

“This is how we would treat any potential outbreak of a communicable disease,” Schuler said. “If we are unable to obtain the necessary access and information, we will determine appropriate next steps, but our goal right now is simply to gain access for purposes of determining whether we have an outbreak.”

The standoff is not the first time, in Colorado or elsewhere, that ICE and its detention center contractors have refused access to outside inspectors.

Adams County officials admonished the Aurora facility earlier this year for failing to provide sufficient information for an investigation into a separate suspected outbreak. In Washington state, to allow state health inspectors into a Tacoma detention center after the facility repeatedly denied them access.

After ICE moved to block members of Congress from conducting unannounced visits to detention centers, another federal judge ordered the Trump administration to grant access to the lawmakers, including Colorado’s U.S. Reps. Jason Crow and Joe Neguse.

Geo has also resisted recent attempts to more tightly regulate the conditions of its facilities. Last month, the company filed a lawsuit challenging a new state law in Colorado that requires regular outside inspections of detention centers; that legislation also covered investigations of communicable diseases.

On Monday, Geo Group announced that it had signed a contract worth up to $528.6 million to open a new detention center in Hudson, on the grounds of a shuttered prison the company once operated.

confirmed a tuberculosis case on June 22, using third-party testing from samples within the detention center, agency spokesman Jennifer Lucero-Alvarez told The Denver Post. Health officials then “immediately” began an investigation into the case.

But personnel at the detention center would not voluntarily provide more information about the infection, prompting the county to issue a public health order on June 25 that required, among other things, an interview with the patient, medical records, identification of any exposed individuals and access to records in the facility.

“As of today, GEO has not provided the full information or access needed for (the county health department) and the Denver Health Tuberculosis Clinic to complete the required public health investigation,” Lucero-Alvarez said Tuesday.

In a separate statement, Kelly Weidenbach, the executive director of the Health Department, said the agency was required by law to investigate active cases of tuberculosis, or TB. The potentially fatal illness spreads through the air and typically affects a patient’s lungs, .

The Guardian that more detainees had tested positive for tuberculosis, citing information from an unnamed detainee. The county health department said it was aware of other reports about more cases, but the agency has not confirmed them or been able to determine the full scope of potential exposures “because the epidemiologic investigation remains incomplete.”

Staff members, visitors, detainees and others may have been exposed. Amy Beeson, the medical director of Denver Health’s TB program, which contracts with Adams County health, said in a separate statement that her staff had “not been permitted to communicate with GEO staff regarding patient care or evaluation of individuals who may have been exposed to TB in the facility.”

“ACHD continues to seek the information and access necessary to complete this legally required public health investigation,” Weidenbach said.

It is illegal to “willfully violate, disobey or disregard” a public health order. Colorado lawmakers also — including “all access necessary” to investigate infectious diseases — at immigration detention centers. The law includes financial penalties of up to $50,000 for any facility that denies inspectors access.

Geo spokesman Christopher Ferreira referred a request for comment to ICE. In an unsigned statement Monday evening, a representative for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, said the Aurora facility had no confirmed, active cases of TB.

The representative did not respond when asked if that meant the patient described by Adams County and by advocates had been moved from the facility. In a follow-up statement, an unnamed ICE representative said the agency had “complied with all federal CDC guidelines and policies on communicable disease, as well as with Colorado law, guidelines, and policies on the same.”

What advocacy groups say

Andrea Loya, the executive director of Casa de Paz, which works with detainees, said her organization first heard about a tuberculosis case on June 24; the information was relayed from someone who had just visited a detainee in the facility. Based on reports from other detainees, she said, Casa de Paz believes there was an outbreak in a housing unit in the facility’s southern annex.

She said one detainee told the group that a person tested positive for TB on July 6 and was removed from their housing unit. That matched another report, made on July 9 to the group, that a person had been removed from the same unit. That person said the entire unit was tested for TB, and they still had evidence of a skin test.

Shira Hereld, an attorney for the Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network who works with detainees, said they were aware of two people who were placed in “precautionary” quarantine. Hereld said one sick patient was also moved from the facility, though it was unclear if that person had tuberculosis.

The 1,530-bed facility is run by the private prison company Geo Group, which on Monday announced it had signed a contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to open another detention center in Hudson in a shuttered former prison.

Gabi Johnston, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Public Health and Environment, referred requests for comment to Adams County.

The investigation is at least the second public health probe into the Aurora facility this year, after Adams County officials sought more information about an alleged respiratory or gastrointestinal outbreak in January. That investigation didn’t identify an outbreak — though it, too, was frustrated by delays and resistance from officials at the facility.

Detainees in the facility have been tested for TB, Hereld said, and were kept “locked down” for several days with no recreation time.

Reports of AC problems

Loya said some staff members at the facility, but not all, were wearing masks recently, and that the group began handing out masks to people going to visit loved ones in the detention center.

What’s more, Loya and other advocates said, air conditioning in parts of the detention center has not been working in recent weeks — a recurring problem that also plagued the facility last summer. She said her group, which is based near the detention center, has seen air conditioning repair vehicles come and go in recent days. Detainees have also been moved around because of the air conditioning issue, which Loya said may have complicated infection control efforts.

Not all detainees have been tested: The Rev. Edward Nalwamba, a Ugandan priest who’s been in the facility for nearly a year, has not been tested for any illnesses, his attorney, Joy Athanasiou, said Tuesday. Nalwamba has been ill with a respiratory illness for weeks, his lawyers have said, and Athanasiou said a new detainee, who also appears to be sick, was placed in Nalwamba’s cell Sunday. Katherine Soo, a nurse practitioner who reviewed Nalwamba’s medical records for his legal team, said he was tested when he entered the facility.

It’s unclear how regularly detainees had been tested for TB prior to the recent investigation. require that new arrivals be tested for the disease. Loya said detainees were typically tested upon arrival.

Detainees clean most of the facility themselves, said Jenn Piper of the American Friends Service Committee. They have not been given cleaning supplies and often use small bottles of shampoo to disinfect their living areas, she said.

“The federal government is allowing this corporation to neglect public health and the people in their custody for profit,” Piper said. “That is what¶¶Òőap happening. ”

The facility expanded its capacity last year to its maximum 1,530-bed level. In April, there, though advocates and attorneys have repeatedly said it is often at near-capacity levels.

Correction, July 14: Due to a source’s error, this story has been updated to reflect Edward Nalwamba’s medical record. He was tested for tuberculosis when he entered the Geo facility.

The long-expected agreement will nearly double U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s immigrant detention capacity in Colorado. The new “Big Horn Contract Detention Center” will hold up to 1,188 detainees, , on top of the 1,530 beds available at the state’s only other immigrant holding facility in Aurora, also operated by Geo.

The five-year contract between ICE and the company was signed Thursday and is worth up to $528.6 million, . Geo, in turn, will begin paying $250,000 in monthly rent to the company that owns the prison, the Chicago-based Highlands REIT, a real estate investment trust, later this year.

Once the prison opens and begins housing detainees, Highlands will receive more than $958,000 per month, . That will increase by 3% each year.

Hudson is a small town roughly 30 miles northeast of Denver, and it has been a target for ICE’s expanded detention efforts for more than a year. Those rumored plans have prompted repeat protests outside the facility’s closed gates, and they’ve also sparked criticism from elected officials in the state and discussions by lawmakers about how to stop ICE from reactivating the long-dormant facility.

Shortly after Geo’s announcement Monday, a community group said it would organize a protest at the prison early Wednesday evening.

Hudson town manager Bryce Lange referred The Denver Post to a statement released by the town Monday morning. The statement said the town “has not received detailed operational information directly from federal agencies” and that the town didn’t know when the facility would open; how many detainees it would house; or what impacts it would have on local utilities, transportation volumes and emergency services.

Lange said that Highlands REIT had informed the town about the signed contracts, but he said municipal officials had not heard from Geo or ICE.

“Town leadership recognizes that residents have strong and deeply personal views about immigration detention facilities,” the town’s statement reads. “The Town’s role is not to determine federal immigration policy.”

A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, did not return messages seeking comment.

Geo spokesman Christopher Ferreira referred The Post to the company’s news release. In that announcement, CEO George C. Zoley said the new Hudson facility would “play an important role in helping meet the need for increased federal immigration processing center bedspace.”

The company expects to make roughly $85 million from the facility in its first full year of operation, “excluding transportation revenue.”

, Hudson officials repeatedly said they had no power to stop the facility from reopening. State officials have similarly said they could do little to block Geo, Highlands and ICE from reaching an agreement regarding privately owned property.

Geo’s press release did not say when the facility would open. The lease between Geo and Highlands REIT begins Aug. 1 and will last for 88 months, according to securities filings.

The signed contracts finalize the long-expected reopening of the prison. Members of Colorado’s congressional delegation were told last year that the facility would be reopened as a detention center, and indicated that ICE signed a six-month letter contract for the facility in December.

In a statement Monday, the ACLU’s legal director, Tim Macdonald, criticized the secrecy under which the facility was contracted.

“We have fought tooth and nail over the last year through public records litigation to get basic information about ICE’s expansion plan,” he said, referring to an ACLU lawsuit that prompted the release of the letter contract, “but ICE has tried to hide those plans behind heavily redacted documents at every turn.”

Andrea Loya, the executive director of Casa de Paz, which works with ICE detainees in Aurora, said advocates had seen trucks ferrying supplies to the Hudson facility starting in February.

She and other immigrant-rights advocates, who’ve previously raised concerns about the conditions in the Aurora facility, were alarmed that Geo was opening another detention center in the state. Alex SĂĄnchez, of the Voces Unidas immigrant advocacy group, criticized the company’s “undignified treatment and horrible conditions.”

“It¶¶Òőap just a shame,” Loya said Monday. “We already know that the Geo facility does not have the capacity to correctly manage the folks that it detains here in Aurora, and so honestly, it¶¶Òőap really concerning that we’re going to have a facility that far out, with the number of emergency calls per week, per day, that we witness every day (in Aurora).”

The facility will be used exclusively by ICE, which had been looking for an additional detention center in Colorado for more than a year. Amid speculation that the Hudson facility might be reopened, Democratic state legislators passed a new law requiring more oversight of immigrant detention facilities in the state.

Last month, Geo filed a lawsuit challenging the state’s authority to impose new requirements — which include improved medical care and outside inspections — on the company, given its role as a federal contractor. Karen Orona, spokeswoman for the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition, said in a statement that “Geo has a documented record of neglecting health and safety and cannot be trusted with human lives.”

“Unfortunately, expanding ICE facilities in Colorado will have serious consequences for our communities, which are already shell-shocked from the Trump administration’s ruthless and chaotic ICE raids,” SĂĄnchez, of Voces Unidas, said.

Last year, the Aurora facility expanded its bed capacity to 1,530, and it has routinely been full or nearly at capacity, advocates have previously said. ICE’s search for additional bed space quickly honed in on the Hudson facility, a onetime private prison run by Geo. It has been shuttered for more than a decade.

The Trump administration’s mass-deportation efforts have been a boon to Geo Group. , Zoley said the company signed contracts worth $520 million in incremental annual revenue last year, the most in its history. As of that call, Geo had 26,000 beds under contract with ICE.

Once the Hudson facility opens, roughly 10% of them will be in Colorado.

In December, the Geo subsidiary BI Incorporated, which is based in Boulder, to provide “skip-tracing” services. The company provides ankle monitors and supervision to ICE detainees who are on supervised release, and skip-tracing involves tracking down a detainee’s location.