Hudson officials said Wednesday that they believe they do not have authority to approve or deny use of an empty prison in town for federal immigration detention, as protestors and citizens pleaded with them to find a pathway to prevent the opening of Colorado’s second such facility.

“We understand that this announcement has generated strong opinions and serious questions that we want to be direct about — what the town knows or remains unknown and what falls within the town’s responsibility,” Town Manager Bryce Lange said before the regularly scheduled council meeting for the town of about 1,600 people in Weld County.

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“The Town Council is not making any decisions on this topic this evening, nor does it anticipate being in any position to ever make a decision on this topic,” he said.

Activists pointed to health and safety problems documented at the Aurora detention center, including a tuberculosis outbreak, as reasons to oppose the Hudson facility.

The GEO Group, a private prison company, announced Monday that it won a five-year federal contract to open the town’s Big Horn Correctional Facility as an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement detention center. GEO operates the state’s only current ICE detention center, a 1,500-bed facility in Aurora. Documents obtained by the ACLU earlier this year showed a contract between GEO and the federal administration to open the Hudson site.

Lange said the town is working to “establish direct communication with GEO” and get confirmed information about the site’s operational timeline, staffing needs, utility demands and expected emergency response use.

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Activists have been opposed to the opening since it was first rumored, and they gathered outside the Town Council meeting and spoke during the meeting’s open public comment opportunity for over two hours. They repeatedly referred to detention centers as “concentration camps” or the incarceration camps used by the federal government during World War II. They also highlighted the documented health and safety issues at the Aurora center, including a recently reported outbreak of tuberculosis.

The opposition reflects growing immigrant advocacy in northeast Colorado communities that have mobilized around detention and immigration issues.

“Just because you don’t have power in it doesn’t mean you can’t have a stance, and it definitely does not mean that you should not actually speak out about this,” Andrea Loya, the executive director of Casa de Paz, said, directing her comments to Mayor Joe Hammock. Casa de Paz supports people within and recently released from the Aurora detention center.

If I were someone that was dealing with status like asylum or temporary protective status, I would be scared out of my mind living in Hudson.– Patricia Alvarez Harrell, executive director of Alianza NORCO

Patricia Alvarez Harrell, executive director of Alianza NORCO, an immigrant advocate nonprofit, said she expects to have a “major” client base in Hudson for the organization’s legal services if the new detention center opens.

Empty Colorado prison to become new ICE detention center, GEO Group says

“I also wanted to highlight that your population here is majority Hispanic,” she said. “If I were someone that was dealing with status like asylum or temporary protective status, I would be scared out of my mind living in Hudson, having the shadow of the Auschwitz of Colorado looming over me.”

State Representative Yara Zokaie, a Democrat who represents Fort Collins, also spoke and said that “ICE’s cruelty” is one of the issues she hears most about as an elected official.

“The treatment in detention centers is something that I have been speaking out about for decades, as we have noted many human rights and civil rights violations in the center in Aurora. But what we are seeing here today in this rise of extremism and cruelty certainly gives us a greater sense of urgency to act,” she said. “I’m here to let you know that at the state, we are going to make it explicitly clear that you have the right to block these centers.”

The one law that passed this year related to immigration detention centers, requiring more frequent health and safety inspections, is currently being challenged in court by GEO.