EDITORIAL: ICE officials broke the law thwarting Aurora jail inspections by Rep. Crow

There is no ambiguity here. 

Aurora Congressperson Jason Crow was unlawfully denied access to the Aurora GEO Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center last Sunday.

No administrative excuse from ICE, and no bureaucratic policy from the Department of Homeland Security, changes the fact that federal law gives members of Congress the right to inspect federal facilities — immediately and without prior notice.

This is not a matter of missed emails or scheduling conflicts as ICE officials have suggested. This is the Trump administration and ICE choosing to obstruct legal oversight of a taxpayer-funded facility that has been under scrutiny for years due to abuse, medical neglect and disturbing secrecy.

The rationale offered by the Trump team? That Crow didn’t provide the required seven-day advance notice, per internal DHS policy.

In Trump’s America that seems to make a difference, but in how the nation was created and run for the past 250 years, policy does not supersede federal law and common sense.

“The Trump Administration attempting to require advance notice for Members of Congress to do their jobs is against the law,” Crow said in a statement. “Congress has the authority to make laws — and the law is clear: Members of Congress have the right to immediately access federal facilities to conduct oversight.”

This is not a technical disagreement. It is a confrontation over whether an executive agency can flout congressional authority and block lawful oversight of its operations, particularly in facilities already accused of human rights violations.

The Aurora GEO facility has been under a dark cloud for years. Two detainees have died. Numerous others have suffered injuries and alleged mistreatment.

The need for surprise inspections is not abstract. Crow and others have consistently pointed out that only unannounced visits can reveal what is truly happening inside immigration detention centers. Warning a facility days in advance undermines the point of oversight. It lets abuses be cleaned up and facts hidden.

If that’s not what ICE and its private partner, GEO Group, are working to do, hide the truth, then let Crow and the public inspect the facility unscheduled, review records and talk freely with inmates.

The for-profit, Florida-based GEO Group operates the Aurora facility for DHS and ICE. On multiple occasions, GEO has been successful at blocking public records, denying transparency, and avoiding responsibility for what happens inside its walls.

These are not minor grievances.

A young Nicaraguan asylum seeker died in 2022 of a pulmonary embolism after injuring his leg while playing soccer in the exercise yard. He had no chronic health conditions. Questions about his treatment, his injuries and whether his death was preventable still remain unanswered.

Kamyar Samimi died in 2017, just 15 days after being detained by ICE at the same Aurora facility. He had lived in the U.S. for decades before being arrested. His mysterious death was the subject of a lawsuit after little to no public explanation from the facility or the agency overseeing it.

Repeated outbreaks of infectious diseases like mumps and measles have swept through the facility with little clarity on how detainees or the public were protected.

And just a few months ago, two inmates escaped during a power outage, and ICE officials tried to blame local police for the inmates staying on the lam for days.

Through it all, ICE and GEO have maintained walls of silence, and when watchdogs like the ACLU attempt to shine a light on what’s happening, those efforts are met with red tape, denial, and dead ends.

“Immigration detention facilities, like the one operated by GEO Group in Aurora, are all too often cloaked in secrecy,” ACLU of Colorado Legal Director Mark Silverstein said previously.

He’s right.

The difference between government-run and privately operated detention facilities is stark. At least with public institutions, there are legal pathways for oversight through the courts and records requests. GEO has repeatedly proven it can sidestep such scrutiny, often with ICE’s help.

It is now abundantly clear that the Aurora GEO facility is not just a site of poor treatment, it is a black hole of accountability. Every serious allegation, every injury, every death that goes unexamined further erodes public trust in the system.

This is not how a government accountable to the public should operate. The federal government must ban the use of private prison contractors for immigrant detention. These companies have shown repeatedly that their business model relies on cutting costs, slashing wages and avoiding scrutiny, all while reaping taxpayer dollars.

The people detained in Aurora are not hardened criminals. Many are asylum seekers. Some have not been charged with any crime at all. They deserve dignity. They deserve medical care. And the public deserves to know they are being treated in accordance with U.S. law and values.

Jason Crow was doing his job. Homeland Security broke the law to stop him. Congress must respond not just with talk, but with meaningful legislative action. Accountability is not optional. It is the foundation of a functioning democracy.