The former Hudson Correctional Facility, closed since 2014, will open as President Donald Trump carries out aggressive deportation plans, including in the Denver metro area, where hundreds have been detained by ICE for removal from the U.S.
The Denver Post first reported the story on Tuesday, August 12. The office of United States House Representative Brittany Pettersen confirmed the report, adding that Congressmembers were told during a visit to the Aurora ICE detention facility on Monday, August 11, that ICE plans to open a new facility in Hudson.
A detention center in Aurora operated and staffed by GEO Group, an international private prison company, currently houses people arrested by ICE. Congressman Jason Crow said in May that about 1,400 people are detained in the facility, including the high-profile immigrant activist Jeannette Vizguerra.
A New York Times article published on August 11 reported that around 60,000 immigrants are currently in detention, the most since Trump's first administration. In July, court documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union revealed that ICE was eyeing six spots in Colorado to open a new detention facility, including two spots each in Colorado Springs and Walsenburg, and one in La Junta and Hudson.
According to the ACLU, ICE was considering leasing the Hudson Correctional Facility from owners Highlands REIT, a real estate investment trust based in Chicago. The building was leased for $10 million a year to GEO Group from 2009 to 2014 to incarcerate Alaska state prisoners while the state built a new penitentiary. The Hudson facility has a capacity of 1,250 beds.
In 2017, ICE and the GEO Group looked into leasing the facility during the first Trump administration because ICE expected to detain more immigrants. However, those plans faded after a decline in crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border, according to emails between Hudson officials and GEO Group that surfaced in 2019.
Hudson town manager Bryce Lange says that no one from the federal government has confirmed to city leadership that Hudson was selected for the new facility. According to Lange, the facility hasn't been used since it closed in 2014.
"There have been a few parties that have expressed interest in reusing the facility for things other than a prison or a detention center, but nothing ever materialized," including a vocational school and data center, he adds.
"We hope whoever ends up reusing HCF adds value and is a partner to our community," he says.
The facility has been an economic driver for the tiny town of 1,600 residents since it first opened in 2009, when a KUNC story called it "a welcome economic boost."
When GEO Group was trying to hire someone to manage the empty facility in 2019, Guy Patterson, the town manager then, said it would be "a big deal" for Hudson if it were up and running again.
"There's no doubt that it's a part of the community," Patterson said at the time. "And there's no doubt that high-paying good jobs are better than low-paying bad jobs."
After the city was named a potential spot for a new facility in July, Lange told Denver7 that Hudson welcomes any new business opening in the town, including GEO Group, and "if they come in, we will support them."
When the facility was operating in 2011, it dumped oil and grease into Hudson's water, disrupting the local water treatment process and forcing the city to spend $65,000 to manage the excess grease from the facility, according to a complaint from the Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA eventually fined the GEO Group $6,250 for violating the Clean Water Act.
The Aurora detention facility operated by GEO Group has been the target of various lawsuits related to labor rights, as well as inmate conditions and access to the facility; in March, two inmates escaped the Aurora facility before being recaptured by April. Congressman Crow filed a lawsuit on July 30 against the Trump administration after he was denied access to the facility, but on Monday, August 11, he reported he was able to tour the facility.
When Trump returned to office in January, GEO Group invested $70 million in preparing the Aurora facility for an influx of inmates. The facility used to only hold a few hundred people at a time before expanding to hold nearly five times as many immigrants, according to GEO Group.
Highlands REIT and GEO Group have not responded to requests for comment.
