Colorado's only ICE detention center operator sues state

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(The Center Square) - Colorado’s new law allowing for more inspections at immigration detention centers is being challenged by a company that runs the state’s lone facility.

The GEO Group sued the state this week over the passage of House Bill 26-1276, which focuses on increasing Colorado’s regulation and oversight of immigration detention centers.

HB 1276 allows for the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment to conduct unannounced inspections at least once every three months. The new law mandates facilities pay for these inspections.

Under the new law, detention centers must allow for access to detainees, records and facility personnel during inspections. If a detention center fails to comply, it could face fines of up to $50,000 per violation.

HB 1276 also requires detention centers to conduct annual reports on topics such as pregnant detainees, detainees with chronic illnesses and disabilities, and facility temperatures.

The new law prevents detention centers from housing minors in the same room as unrelated adults.  

Colorado detention centers need to have medical and mental health professionals on site, according to HB 1276. The new law says immigration detention centers that violate these new requirements can be fined up to $50,000 per noncompliance.

In its lawsuit, the GEO Group said the bill “fits into a broader pattern of state efforts to improperly assert regulatory authority over immigration detention facilities based on state and local elected officials’ political objections to federal immigration policy.”

The GEO Group argued HB 1276 is the “most recent attempt by a state to directly regulate the federal government’s immigration detention operation,” which “is a direct affront to the Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution.” The clause says federal laws prevail over state statues.

The company asked a Colorado federal court to rule HB 1276 unconstitutional and issue a permanent injunction against Colorado state officials from enforcing the new law against the GEO Group, which runs a 1,532-bed detention center in Aurora for illegal immigrants.

The Center Square reached out to the GEO Group, but it had not responded by press time.

Lauren Bis, acting assistant secretary for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, said the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement “is regularly audited and inspected by external agencies to ensure that all ICE facilities comply with performance-based national detention standards.”

“All detainees are provided with proper meals, quality water, blankets, medical treatment, and have opportunities to communicate with their family members and lawyers,” Bis said, answering The Center Square's questions by email. “ICE has higher detention standards than most U.S. prisons that hold actual U.S. citizens.”

She added that “in many states [ICE has] twice as many medical staff and space for detainees” and its “death rates are lower than most state prisons.”

In reaction to the lawsuit, Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, who is named one of the defendants, said, “There are disturbing reports about unhealthy living conditions at for-profit detention camps like the GEO facility in Aurora.”

“Meeting basic health and safety requirements and being transparent about facility conditions are necessary for the humane treatment of immigrants who are going through civil immigration proceedings. We’re committed to defending state law and protecting the safety of immigrants,” he added.