A trio of Colorado Democrats is urging U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to “immediately abandon” its plans to open an immigrant detention center in a dormant prison in Hudson.

Located about 30 miles northeast of Denver, the 1,200-bed Big Horn Correctional Facility, formerly known as the Hudson Correctional Facility, has sat empty since it was shuttered in 2014. It’s one of several new facilities in Colorado proposed by ICE as the agency ramps up its operations to support President Donald Trump’s mass-deportation campaign, boosted by $45 billion in new funding for immigration detention passed by congressional Republicans.

In a letter Tuesday to ICE Director Todd Lyons and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, U.S. Representative Brittany Pettersen and Senators Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper expressed “profound concern” about a contract reportedly awarded to private-prison company The GEO Group to hold ICE detainees at the Hudson facility.

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“As ICE agents continue to terrorize our communities, illegally detain U.S. citizens and skirt congressional oversight of existing facilities, we strongly oppose the expansion of ICE detention beds in Colorado,” wrote Pettersen, Bennet and Hickenlooper.

“There’s not a chance in hell we’re going to sit back and allow this rogue, lawless agency to expand their despicable operations in Colorado,” Pettersen said in a statement. “My stomach is sick thinking about the families being ripped apart and the kids forced to endure a lifetime of trauma and heartbreak from losing their parents.”

A contract for “comprehensive detention services” at the Big Horn facility was issued to The GEO Group on Dec. 1, according to documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado. The value and terms of the contract are redacted in the documents. A separate $39 million contract was previously awarded for the six-month period beginning in April 2025, but the prison remained empty.

In their letter to DHS officials, Democrats are seeking clarification about that initial contract, asking the Trump administration to itemize how that $39 million was spent. They also want information about the facility’s planned capacity, how it will meet health and safety standards, and whether DHS has communicated with state and local government agencies about its plans.

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Colorado is currently home to only one ICE detention center, a 1,500-capacity Aurora facility also operated by GEO, which has long been the target of criticism from activists over allegations of inhumane conditions and dehumanizing treatment. The Democrats’ letter warns that the planned Hudson detention center in rural Weld County would “risk delaying legal proceedings, limiting access to counsel and undermining detainees’ ability to maintain communication with family members.”

In his second term, Trump has pledged to carry out “the largest deportation operation in the history of our country,” aiming to remove all of the estimated 12 million immigrants in the country without permanent legal status, regardless of how long they have been in the country, the legal status of their family members or whether they have criminal records.

Protesters have demonstrated against ICE’s plans for the Hudson facility since they were first reported last year. Earlier this month, a coalition of clergy members and immigrant rights activists called on Highlands Real Estate Investment Trust, the Chicago-based company that owns the dormant prison, to end plans to lease the facility to GEO or ICE.

“A new ICE facility in Colorado won’t make us safer — especially without guardrails to ensure basic, humane treatment of those at the facility,” Pettersen said Tuesday. “If DHS refuses to reverse course, we will continue to fight back against their unlawful practices and show up to conduct our duty to ensure oversight and accountability.”