HUDSON, Colo. — Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser has filed a lawsuit to stop plans for an immigration detention center to open at a former state prison in the Denver area.
The Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement signed a five-year contract with the GEO group in July to open a detention center at the the former Hudson Correction Facility in Hudson, which is about 30 mile northeast of Denver. Weiser says the contract is valued at over $500 million. The prison operated for about five years before closing in 2014.
Federal officials say they planned to reopen it as a 1,200-bed private immigration detention facility called the Big Horn.
Weiser on Tuesday announced that a lawsuit has been filed in the federal district court in Denver to stop the facility from opening. The lawsuit alleges DHS and ICE ignored their legal duties of considering possible environmental and residential impacts, providing the public with information and ensuring the location was appropriate.
“Coloradans are deeply worried about plans to open a new immigrant detention facility in Hudson to carry out the Trump administration’s inhumane—and often illegal—mass deportation scheme. Despite the fact that the proposed facility would nearly double the size of the town’s population, the federal government has failed to prepare the necessary analysis of the facility’s impact on the local community and resources. We’re asking the court to stop any further activities to open and operate the Hudson site until DHS and ICE conduct the legal analysis required by law,” Weiser said in a statement.
The attorney general is asking the court to cancel the contract between the federal agencies and the GEO group and stop work to open the facility "until the government complies with the law," according to a press release. The press release also says the lawsuit is asking the court to order them "to prepare an environmental assessment or environmental impact statement under NEPA and document their compliance with federal immigration law."
"Will the underlying infrastructure, roads, drinking water, wastewater treatment, be able to sustain this sort of facility? And is there appropriate infrastructure in place to engage in the humane treatment of over 1,000 people," Weiser said during a press conference Tuesday.
Weiser says the federal government not following legal obligations violates the National Environmental Policy Act, the Administrative Procedure Act, and the Immigration and Nationality Act. Weiser says the federal agencies did not conduct proper analysis and because of that, the state doesn't have information on the work that's needed to make sure the facility is suitable to house people again.
"We have a sworn statement in this lawsuit from the Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials or an official that this facility is harmful to the surrounding environment, including the fact that there are nearby deer migration carters that would be affected. There's an aquatic habitat that could be harmed, and protected and sensitive species in the vicinity also subject to harm," Weiser said.
Protesters have rallied against the plans and a nonprofit and Hudson resident filed a lawsuit in July.
Not everyone is against the planned facility. However, residents say with a local population of about 1,650 people, it would not be realistic.
Denver 7 has reached out to ICE and the DHS and is waiting to hear back.
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