Democratic lawmakers raise concerns after GEO ICE facility tour in Aurora

AURORA | Aurora Congressperson Jason Crow and three other Democratic Colorado lawmakers said a tour and inspection Monday of the GEO Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in Aurora left them with more questions than answers.

“I can personally say after my tenth visit, this has been the most difficult visit in terms of getting information, getting answers out of the facility, out of the employees and being obstructed from conducting a full-water oversight that I’ve had in over six years,” Crow said. 

Crow was joined by fellow Reps. Brittany Pettersen, Diana DeGette and Joe Neguse for the planned tour. Under current ICE rules, lawmakers must give the privately run GEO facility seven days’ notice before visiting, which is a significant change from the pre-Trump administration, when members of Congress could arrive unannounced for inspections.

Crow and other members of Congress filed suit against the Trump administration last week, saying the policy requiring notice is a direct violation of state law.

The lawmakers said the advance notice allowed ICE to prepare for and stage the visit. Despite that, they reported that many of their questions still went unanswered, and that the facility’s staff could not provide even basic details about detainees.

Pettersen said there is typically a liaison who can direct lawmakers to the right people for answers on topics like population numbers and conditions. That is not the case now. 

Although no number of detainees was given, Crow said, they saw the intake board listed “slightly over 1,200” detainees. When lawmakers asked for other specifics, such as how many were classified at each security level, the staff could not provide the numbers.

Pettersen and Crow said detainees are assigned zones based on risk levels, but the facility could not share how many fell into each category. They said requests for that information now must go through ICE’s Washington, D.C., headquarters.

“We visited the pods, we visited the health care facility, and it led to many, many more questions,” Crow said.

Although there is a law library, the congresspeople were told that inmates’ access to lawyers and to legal advice was limited, and that detainees were even restricted from going to the law library.  

Detainees are also being charged 17 cents a minute to make outgoing calls, which is a violation of a state law, according to Petterson. 

DeGette said she was able to meet with the one detainee she had planned to see, but only because she had prearranged it. They were able to meet with one more, but lawmakers did not reveal who that person was. 

ICE recently implemented a policy requiring lawmakers to obtain a signed privacy release before meeting with detained constituents. 

“If I want to go visit my constituent who’s in this facility, then somehow I have to get a privacy release to them through the mail or other means,” she said.

That day, the entire detainee population was on lockdown for a head count, preventing lawmakers from speaking to anyone else. 

That one person DeGette planned to meet was Jeanette Vizguerra, who DeGette described as a long-time immigrant rights advocate in the Denver area who has complied with everything that she’s supposed to, including immigration check-ins. 

Vizguerra has been in ICE custody at GEO since March 17, after being arrested at her job at Target. Her arrest garnered national attention.

“When I met Jeanette, she was in sanctuary in two churches in Denver during the first Trump administration, and she has been an unrelenting and outspoken advocate for immigrant rights,” DeGette said. “I think that’s why Jeanette was targeted for pickup outside her job.”

DeGette said she met with Vizguerra to hand her a document, and she said she introduced a bill to allow her to remain in the country while her case proceeds.

“She told me she is not going to stop fighting for immigrants’ rights, so we’re going to keep up our oversight here,” DeGette said. 

Neguse said ICE’s current policies of blocking unannounced visits to detention centers and field offices violate federal law, and they will continue pursuing legal action over the issue.

“Mass deportation policies are wreaking havoc in communities across our great state,” Neguse said. “Transparency matters, oversight matters, accountability matters, and we can expect to see Colorado’s Democratic House members continue to lean in on all fronts.”

They all said that those being detained are often not dangerous criminals; many are families and working people who have complied with immigration requirements. Without accurate data on who is being held and why, they said, it is nearly impossible to ensure proper oversight.

“What’s very clear nationally is that the vast majority of people that are being detained under President Trump’s mass deportation policies have no criminal records and are oftentimes business owners, family, parents, people who are living and working and contributing to our community,” Crow said.