
Federal immigration officials intend to triple Colorado’s immigrant detention capacity by opening as many as three new facilities in the state in the coming months, according to recent planning documents obtained by the Washington Post.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was already moving to reopen a closed correctional facility in Hudson, northeast of metro Denver. The Denver Post reported on the Hudson plan earlier this week based on what members of the state’s congressional delegation were told.
But the new documents indicate the agency is also targeting the reopening of another private prison in Walsenburg, in southern Colorado, and the addition of another 28 beds at the Southern Ute Detention Center in Ignacio, which is on the Southern Ute Indian Reservation, southeast of Durango.
The documents also say ICE plans to expand its capacity at its sole operating facility in the state, in Aurora, from a contracted cap of 1,360 beds to its maximum capacity of 1,530. That expansion, along with the opening of the Hudson and Walsenburg facilities, are both expected before the end of the year, according to the documents.
ICE is rapidly seeking to expand its detention capacity amid President Donald Trump’s mass-deportation push.
By January, the Washington Post reported, its plans call for detention beds to reach 107,000 nationwide, which would be more than double the nearly 50,000 capacity of the immigration detention system when Trump began his second term.
The expansion and openings would mean Colorado would have the sixth-most ICE detention beds in the country, according to the Washington Post’s analysis.
A U.S. Department of Homeland Security spokesman confirmed to the Washington Post that the planning documents were legitimate but said the list was outdated and that its contracts were “not accurate.” The list was last updated July 30, the Washington Post reported. Spokespeople for ICE did not return messages from The Denver Post on Friday.
If all three facilities — in Hudson, Ignacio and Walsenburg — were to open, it would represent a significant expansion not only of ICE’s current footprint but of its own previous plans. When it put out a request for potential detention sites earlier this year, the agency said it was looking to add up to 850 to 950 new beds in the state.
But now, the three possible new detention centers, coupled with more beds in the Aurora facility, would more than triple capacity from the current limit of 1,360 beds to just over 4,000. Both the Walsenburg and Hudson facilities were among several pitched to ICE in response to its request earlier this year.


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