Empty Colorado prison to become new ICE detention center, GEO Group says

A dormant, privately-owned prison in Hudson is set to become Colorado’s second Immigrations and Customs Enforcement detention center, The GEO Group, a private prison company, announced Monday.

The Big Horn Correctional Facility has been eyed by ICE officials to expand Colorado’s immigrant detention capacity since last year, and documents obtained by the ACLU previously showed the facility was under contract to operate as a new detention center. Monday’s announcement by The GEO Group is the company’s first public confirmation of those plans.

Located about 30 miles northeast of Denver and formerly known as the Hudson Correctional Facility, Big Horn is a 1,200-bed prison that operated for a span of just five years after its 2009 opening. It’s owned by the Chicago-based Highlands Real Estate Investment Trust, which also owns several apartment complexes in Denver and other U.S. cities.

In a press release, The GEO Group confirmed that it has leased the Big Horn facility from Highlands REIT and entered into a five-year contract with ICE to operate a detention center there. The company says its contract is “expected to generate approximately $85 million in annual revenues in the first full year of operations.”

Together with CoreCivic, another large private-prison company, The GEO Group is expected to be the prime beneficiary of a multibillion-dollar windfall for expanded immigration detention services authorized by Republicans’ 2025 spending and tax cut law. Last year, GEO chairman George Zoley spoke during an earnings call about the “attractive opportunity for investors” presented by “the unprecedented growth opportunities we anticipate will materialize over the balance of this year and next year.”

In a statement Monday, Zoley said his company is “ready to continue to assist the federal government in meeting its immigration enforcement priorities,” and that the Big Horn facility “will play an important role in helping meet the need for increased federal immigration processing center bedspace.”

In his second term, President Donald Trump has pledged to carry out the “largest domestic deportation operation in American history,” aiming to remove all of the estimated 12 million immigrants in the country without permanent legal status, regardless of how long they have been in the country, the legal status of their family members or whether they have criminal records.

Colorado is currently home to only one ICE detention center, a 1,500-capacity Aurora facility also operated by GEO, which has long been the target of criticism from activists over allegations of inhumane conditions and dehumanizing treatment.

Immigration advocates and Colorado Democrats have been staunchly opposed to the Hudson facility’s potential use as an ICE detention center since last year. In a social media post, U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet said he was “extremely disheartened” by Monday’s announcement.

“This new facility will not only nearly double the number of detention beds, but is in a rural location, far from the organizations that offer resources and oversight,” Bennet said. “I will continue to push for necessary guardrails, critical reforms, and work towards preventing the opening of this facility.”