About a hundred protesters gathered outside the small town of Walsenburg Friday to protest the possibility of a mothballed correctional facility getting reopened to serve Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The Huerfano County Correctional Facility is one of three Colorado options listed by ICE in its plans to meet the Trump Administration’s goal of expanding the agency’s capacity to hold more than 100,000 immigrants while they await deportation.
Local resident Jason Valdez, an organizer with Speak Up Southern Colorado, said a handful of different advocacy groups from as far away as Metro Denver and the San Luis Valley coordinated on the Friday protest.
For at least two hours, protesters chanted outside the Huerfano facility or held handmade signs from a nearby interstate overpass.
A small group of hired security were also present, hired by private prison company CoreCivic, which owns the Huerfano County facility. With a capacity for 1,400 inmates, it’s been dormant since the 2010s. The county has one of the highest unemployment rates in the state and local leaders have said reopening the location could bring much-needed jobs to the area. While no formal contract for the facility has been announced, in July, CoreCivic posted a job listing for detention officers in Walsenburg.
Valdez said he understood the need for local employment, but suggested the idea that CoreCivic planned to invest in the area for the long term was “foolhardy.”
“If (local leaders) really want economic development in this town, they should be focusing on the everyday people who want to open up businesses here, the mom and pop shops,” Valdez said. “Not opening up a concentration camp for people that just came to this country looking for a better life.”
In a statement emailed to CPR News, CoreCivic Senior Director of Public Affairs Ryan Gustin said the company has been helping ICE and its predecessors with detention services for 40 years. He said the company maintains high standards of care and is subject to independent audits. CoreCivic does not make arrests or enforce immigration laws, he noted, and does not “have any say whatsoever in an individual’s deportation or release.”
“The services we provide help the government solve problems in ways it could not do alone – to help create safer communities by assisting with the current immigration challenges,” Gustin said. “These are problems the American public has made clear they want fixed.”
Aurora resident Alondra Flores drove down with her two young children for the protest. A Mexican immigrant herself, who was brought as a child, she said the U.S. is the only country she has known as home.
“It is because of my parents bringing me here that my kids are now able to live that American dream along my side,” she said. “We are not criminals.”
According to ICE documents obtained by the Washington Post, the other Colorado facilities listed for possible ICE expansion include the 1,132-person capacity Big Horn Detention Facility in Hudson and 28-person capacity Southern Ute Indian Adult Detention Center in Ignacio.
| This story is part of a collection tracking the impacts of President Donald Trump’s second administration on the lives of everyday Coloradans. Since taking office, Trump has overhauled nearly every aspect of the federal government; journalists from CPR News, KRCC and Denverite are staying on top of what that means for you. Read more here. |
