"The denial violated federal law, which grants members of Congress the right to conduct unannounced oversight visits of federal immigration detention facilities," according to a July 30 press release from Crow's office. "Crow has fought to promote transparency, oversight and accountability in federal immigration detention centers."
The Aurora detention facility at 3130 Oakland Street is staffed and operated by the GEO Group, an international private prison company, but ICE still has custody of the prisoners and keeps a few agents on site. According to Crow, he was denied entry by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees ICE.
Homeland Security has yet to respond to a request for a comment for this story; ICE referred requests for a comment to DHS.
Several lawsuits have been filed against the GEO Group for their management of the detention facility, but neither ICE nor the federal government were targeted by those lawsuits.
In 2014, former detainees filed a class-action lawsuit after accusing GEO staff of forcing them to work under threat of solitary confinement.
In 2015, a federal judge dismissed part of a lawsuit claiming GEO violated Colorado minimum wage laws, but the lawsuit is still in court over claims of federal violations. In 2019, the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado sued GEO for the death of Iranian national Kamyar Samimi in 2017, which resulted in a settlement for the family.
As a member of the U.S. House of Representatives since 2019, Crow represents Congressional District 6, which mostly covers Aurora. The detention facility is in his district, as it sits in north Aurora near the Anschutz Medical Campus.
Over the years, the company running ICE's Aurora facility has faced several lawsuits by detainees or their families and calls from oversight by Congress.
Kenzie Bruce
According to Crow, other Democratic members of Congress joined the lawsuit after they were denied access to federal detention facilities, including Crow's fellow Colorado Congressman Joe Neguse. Others signed onto the lawsuit include congressmembers from Maryland, California, Texas and Mississippi.
"Since President Trump was elected, this administration has denied members of Congress access to immigration detention facilities and tried to intimidate us from doing our jobs," Crow says in a statement. "Oversight is a fundamental responsibility of Congress."
Access to and oversight of the detention facility has been a hot-button issue for Crow since February 2019, when he attempted to tour the facility to investigate the condition of detainees during a mumps and chicken pox outbreak. In July of that year, Crow and his staff began making weekly visits to the facility. "Since President Trump was elected, this administration has denied members of Congress access to immigration detention facilities and tried to intimidate us from doing our jobs," Crow says in a statement. "Oversight is a fundamental responsibility of Congress."
In 2019, Crow successfully spearheaded the passage of the federal Public Oversight of Detention Center (POD) Act, which allows all members of Congress to access immigration detention facilities without notice and for congressional staff to gain entry with only 24 hours' notice.
After Trump took office in January, the GEO facility told Westword that it was investing $70 million to prepare the facility for an influx of detainees due to Trump's mass deportation plan, once titled Operation Aurora.
One of Trump's first actions was to sign a slew of executive orders mandating new, harsher restrictions on immigration processes and resources. That included an order that forced the Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network to stop offering free legal services at the Aurora ICE detention facility and in courthouses.
ICE carried out one of its first large raids into Colorado residences in early February, when agents burst into apartments in Denver and Aurora and arrested dozens of immigrants, with reports of as many as thirty arrested despite some showing asylum paperwork.
Congressman Jason Crow told his constituents in May that about 1,400 people are detained in the Aurora ICE facility, up from 300 just months ago.
Bennito L. Kelty
Among those incarcerated in the facility were some arrested during the February raid, according to Crow. Another detainee in the facility is Jeanette Vizguerra, the activist who won a human rights award in May despite her incarceration. Vigils have been taking place weekly outside the facility since she was arrested in March.
Utah student Caroline Dias Goncalvas was held there for two weeks after being detained during a traffic stop. In a statement after her release in June, she reported detainees suffering from discrimination if they didn't speak English and being fed soggy bread.
On July 9, the American Civil Liberties Union shared documents revealing that ICE had plans to open more detention facilities in Colorado, including two in Colorado Springs and Huerfano County and others in Hudson and La Junta.
More than 240 immigrants without permanent legal status were arrested during a nine-day ICE operation across the Denver metro area from July 12 to July 20. On July 20, Crow was denied entry into the Aurora detention facility.
Trump is facing more than a dozen lawsuits from Colorado, including fifteen from the state offices for issues like repealing birthright citizenship and withholding federal funding. The City of Denver has filed four lawsuits for similar reasons after Trump targeted it as a "sanctuary city."
