HUDSON — A Hudson Town Council agenda for its Wednesday meeting shows that officials in the small Weld County community will “receive legal advice from the Town Attorney regarding the potential re-use of the Hudson Correctional Facility,” a defunct prison that has reportedly been eyed for use in the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s sweeping immigration crackdown.
That legal advice will be offered during an executive session in advance of the public portion of the 5:30 p.m. Hudson Town Council meeting, according to the agenda. Executive sessions are closed-door discussions that are not subject to many of Colorado’s open-meetings laws. Government officials can call for such sessions, which are fairly common among municipal boards, to talk about a number of subjects such as legal issues, personnel matters and real estate negotiations.
ICE, which has been the subject of nationwide protests following the recent killings by its agents of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis, last year identified the Hudson Correctional Facility as the possible home of a new immigration detention center.
Last month, the ACLU of Colorado, through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed in September 2025, obtained federal documents indicating that the Trump administration has agreed to a “letter contract” that would pay private-prison operator The Geo Group nearly $40 million to run the Hudson detention center— referred to in ICE correspondence as the Big Horn Correctional Facility — for six months. The ACLU said many of the documents were heavily redacted.
“While we have forced ICE to finally give us and the public some additional documents, the agency still resists any meaningful transparency into its actions. They continue to try to keep the public in the dark about their expanded detention plans and operate in the shadows with virtually no oversight,” Tim Macdonald, ACLU of Colorado legal director, said in a January statement. “As ICE escalates its aggression across Colorado and the country, we must demand more answers, not less. We must have more transparency into how they plan to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to imprison more people who have not been convicted of any crime.”
During a town council meeting last month, opponents of ICE’s plan spent three hours criticizing the proposed Hudson detention facility, according to the Denver Post.
The minutes for Hudson Town Council’s Jan. 21 meeting show that “significant presence of individuals attending to speak regarding a potential ICE detention facility. While the Town has not been formally approached regarding the reopening of the facility and the item was not on the agenda, Mayor (Joe) Hammock invited comments.”
More than 70 speakers expressed “opposition to the facility, articulating a wide range of ethical, legal, and operational concerns. Many speakers cited the Town’s Land Development Code regarding non-conforming uses and vacancy, arguing that the facility’s long-term inactivity should void existing permits,” the meeting minutes said. “Others urged the Council to utilize zoning, building, and life-safety oversight to ensure strict accountability. Public testimony focused heavily on human rights and due process, with commenters describing the detention system as inhumane and highlighting the psychological fear it instills in the community.”
Participants in that January public comment session “collectively urged the Council to use its local authority to prevent the facility from opening, citing concerns over the history of private detention corporations and the moral responsibility of local governance,” the minutes said. “The Mayor and Council listened to all testimony; however, no formal action was taken as the matter was not a scheduled business item.”
Wednesday’s meeting is the board’s first since that packed late January public hearing.
