In the News

All six Democratic members of Colorado’s congressional delegation — led by U.S. Rep. Brittany Pettersen — demanded yesterday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) “immediately” stop holding people for “extended periods of time in small, confined rooms that are meant to be a temporary holding space.”

Between January and October of last year, ICE detained a total of 2,831 individuals in nine facilities, most of which are tucked into strip malls and industrial parks around the state, the Colorado Times Recorder reported. Many detainees were held for weeks in what ICE calls “hold rooms.”

“We are deeply concerned about the reports that ICE kept an individual in the holding cells for as long as 39 days – well beyond the three-day limit established by the DHS in June, which we also view as unacceptable,” they wrote.

Thirty-one members of Colorado’s state legislature — led by Adams County state Rep. Manny Rutinel, who is running for Congress — made a similar demand last week.

In their letter to Lyons, the members of Congress requested answers to six questions related to the hold room, including, Is ICE currently “keeping individuals in holding cells in ICE field offices for more than 12 hours at a time?” “What safety precautions are being taken to ensure that the detainee’s nutritional, medical, and hygiene needs are being met?” “What documentation procedures does ICE follow to ensure that [a] detainee’s location is tracked?” “When an individual is held in a holding cell, how does ICE ensure that their legal representation can access them?” And, “What is the protocol for allowing County Health Departments to conduct inspections for sanitation, food safety, and infectious disease control at these locations?”

Confirming the Colorado Times Recorder’s investigation into the hold rooms, ICE acknowledged in a statement to Fox 31 News on Friday that it detains individuals in its facilities in strip malls and office parks, writing that they are “ICE suboffices located throughout Colorado and the country” and “are where aliens may be asked to check in for appointments and where our officers report for work, conduct investigations, process arrests and may temporarily hold detainees before transferring them to a detention center.”

But contrary to the evidence reported by the Colorado Times Recorder, the Guardian, CNN, and other news outlets, ICE stated that the “holding cells” in these makeshift detention centers “conform to all national detention standards and are inspected regularly; they are akin to a sheriff’s office or police department suboffice.”

In fact, many, if not all, of the facilities are out of compliance with ICE’s standards, which state, among other things, that immigrants cannot be held in the “hold rooms” for more than 72 hours, which was increased from 12 hours in June. ICE’s own documents show that immigrants are held for up to weeks at a time and that many facilities lack beds and other basics.

Responding to Pettersen on X yesterday, ICE denied that the hold rooms were “secret.”

“They are sub-offices within the field office where ICE personnel are assigned, conduct operations, and process arrests,” ICE wrote on X. “Most of these offices have been open and operating for more than 15 years.”

In fact, in the Colorado Times Recorder’s survey of most of Colorado’s nine ICE offices with the “hold rooms,” none were labeled as jails or detention centers, even though detaining thousands of individuals is at least a part of their purpose.

In its statement to Fox 31, ICE acknowledged that children are held in its makeshift “cells,” stating, “On occasion, when a family unit is arrested, they may temporarily pass through a suboffice before transportation is arranged for them to a detention center with a family housing unit. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement does not separate families or deport U.S. citizens. Illegal alien parents — absent indications of abuse or neglect — can choose to take their children with them, regardless of the children’s immigration statuses. Parents who choose to leave their children in the U.S. have the option to designate a third-party caregiver. This has always been the case, and this policy aligns with President Trump’s executive orders. This directive simply standardizes the required forms for illegal alien parents.”

Wednesday’s letter was signed by Pettersen, Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper, and Reps. Jason Crow, Diana DeGette, and Joe Neguse.

Neguse visited the ICE holding room in Garfield County, posting a video on BlueSky with the comment, “Recent public reporting indicates that ICE is holding immigrants at secret detention facilities across Colorado. Today, I attempted to conduct oversight at one of the locations in Garfield County.”