Colorado sues feds over ICE detention centers
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser is suing the federal government as part of a second legal battle against the construction of immigrant detention centers in the state.
The lawsuit was filed in an attempt to stop or temporarily delay the construction of a detention facility housing illegal immigrants in Hudson, Colo.
Filed Tuesday by Weiser, the suit requested a preliminary injunction to “halt the continued renovation, construction, and planned operation of a new civil immigration detention center in Hudson, Colorado,” according to the court document.
According to Weiser, the basis of the request for preliminary injunction falls on the grounds that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement must comply with an environmental review before proceeding, as required under the National Environmental Policy Act.
“DHS and ICE have violated NEPA by contracting for the facility’s operation without considering the potential environmental impacts,” the document further reads.
DHS and ICE did not immediately respond to The Center Square’s request for comment on the lawsuit.
Weiser previously sued the private prison company, GEO Group, in August, in an effort to require the company to comply with state health and safety inspections. GEO Group currently owns and operates an immigration detention facility in another Colorado city, Aurora. This came as a tuberculosis outbreak was reported at the prison, to which the county and state’s department for public safety and environment issued an order requesting the facility also comply with the state’s investigative procedures.
GEO Group initially sued the state merely weeks before Attorney General Weiser filed his lawsuit against the private company. The company alleged the state could not implement or enforce statewide health and safety inspections because of the federal contract GEO group has with the government, which would effectively bar the state from enforcing regulations over the federal government’s orders.
Weiser released a press statement on Tuesday for the newest lawsuit, saying “Coloradans are deeply worried about plans to open a new immigrant detention facility in Hudson to carry out the Trump administration’s inhumane — and often illegal — mass deportation scheme.”
Weiser’s chief communications officer, Lawrence Pacheco, declined to provide any additional comments to The Center Square.
The press release added that the federal government had complied with the federal law’s requirements previously and conducted an environmental review for immigration detention facilities in Texas. He indicated that Colorado’s situation should be no different.
“We’re asking the court to stop any further activities to open and operate the Hudson site until DHS and ICE conduct the legal analysis required by law,” Weiser said in his statement.
Weiser’s earlier lawsuit against GEO Group did not end in his favor, however, as a Trump-appointed federal judge ruled against the state. The judge effectively blocked major provisions in Colorado’s House Bill 26-1276 by citing the federal supremacy clause, which means federal legislation trumps state legislation, and the state could not require a federally-funded facility to comply with state-mandated orders over the federal government.
This would be Weiser’s 84th lawsuit against the second Trump administration. The Democratic attorney general, who’s running against Republican candidate Victor Marx for governor, tracks the status of his lawsuits on the Attorney General Office’s website, in a section called “Defending Colorado.”
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