This story was first published at Colorado Newsline.
DENVER | Six Colorado Democrats on Wednesday demanded answers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials on the agency’s apparent violations of its own rules governing the detention of immigrants in holding rooms in nondescript locations across the state.
Scrutiny of the facilities follows a March 8 investigation by the Colorado Times Recorder, based on information from the Deportation Data Project. Last year, more than 3,000 individuals were detained in one of the nine holding facilities in the state, and many of them were recorded as having been kept there for weeks at a time.
Prior to last summer, ICE’s rules stated that detainees could be kept in hold rooms — which are prohibited from being equipped with “bunks, cots, beds or other sleeping apparatus,” and many of which do not have toilets — for no more than 12 hours. As it ramped up the agency’s operations in pursuit of its mass deportation agenda, President Donald Trump’s administration in June 2025 increased the time limit to 72 hours.
In a letter to Todd Lyons, the acting director of ICE, Colorado Democrats expressed deep concern about “the safety risks of keeping individuals in these holding cells for extended periods of time.”
“Detaining people for extended periods of time in small, confined rooms that are meant to be a temporary holding space goes against Department of Homeland Security policy, and we demand these actions stop immediately,” says the letter, signed by U.S. Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper, and Reps. Diana DeGette, Joe Neguse, Jason Crow and Brittany Pettersen.
Data shows ICE facilities in Colorado have repeatedly exceeded the time limits both before and after the Trump administration’s change. Two Nicaraguan men were kept in a Denver hold room for 39 and 36 days, respectively. A 31-year-old man was held in a facility in Frederick for 34 days, while at least three men were detained in a Pueblo hold room for stays lasting between 12 and 19 days.
Neguse said Wednesday night that he had attempted to inspect a holding facility in Glenwood Springs, but the building appeared to be empty, and no one came to the door or answered the phone. He and Crow are plaintiffs in a long-running lawsuit against the Trump administration seeking to affirm the right of members of Congress to conduct oversight visits to ICE detention facilities, without the prior notice that the administration has attempted to require.
“Suffice to say that it’s raised far more questions than answers. We intend to get to the bottom of it,” Neguse said in a video taken outside the facility. “We know that the cruel and unconscionable practices of the Trump administration are wreaking havoc each and every day, including in communities like this one — and we’re going to continue to push back.”
ICE’s Denver field office responded to a statement from Pettersen about the hold rooms in a social media post. It called claims about the facilities “misinformation from an inaccurate source,” but did not respond to concerns about the extended detentions in hold rooms.
In their letter, Democrats ask ICE to respond by March 27 to a list of questions regarding its holding room practices, including “what safety precautions are being taken to ensure that the detainee’s nutritional, medical, and hygiene needs are being met.”
ICE also operates detention centers, which unlike hold rooms are equipped to detain people for extended periods. The agency operates one detention center in Colorado, located in Aurora, and it plans to open at least one more.