Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser on Tuesday filed a federal lawsuit trying to block an immigration detention center from opening in Hudson, saying the federal government failed to study the environmental impacts of reopening a former private prison to hold people arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The lawsuit names the Department of Homeland Security, ICE and its leaders as defendants. It asks a judge to throw out the five-year, $528.7 million contract the government signed with the GEO Group to operate the nearly 1,200-bed facility as the Big Horn immigration detention center in the town about 30 miles northeast of Denver along Interstate 76. It seeks to stop any detention center from opening until the federal government conducts an environmental review that Weiser says is required under National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA. Marty Lenz spoke with Colleen Slevin who covered this story for the Colorado Sun.
“This facility has been shuttered for quite some time. It can’t just be picked up and put into use without going through the required reviews. They’re there for a reason,” Weiser said during a news conference.
He believes the center could be on track to open by the end of the year.
The Department of Homeland Security said the lawsuit wasn’t really about the environment.
Read the full article on the Colorado Sun's website.
