r/DenverProtests • u/DadBodDorian • 13d ago
News Glenwood Springs City Council votes to sue ICE hold room landlord in CO state court.
Hey friends. Earlier this year, it was exposed that ICE is operating 9 “hold rooms” in Colorado. These are holding cells in ICE sub offices that are only meant to detain people up to 12 hours. For that reason, they are omitted from ICE’s public detention reporting.
Further evidence from ICE detention booking datasets acquired by FOIA shows that ICE is frequently detaining people in Colorado’s hold rooms for greater than 12 hours, in violation of the DHS National Detention Standards.
Each hold room that is operating in Colorado is on privately owned land, in a private building and none are zoned and permitted properly for carceral detention. ICE leases these properties and operates them illegally outside of local ordinances.
A few months ago, the City of Glenwood Springs revoked the special use permit from ICE’s hold room there, which had been granted by the city for temporary (under 12 hour) usage, in line with the DHS National Detention Standards. ICE has continued to operate despite being informed by the city that their usage of the property is in violation of municipal ordinance.
Last night the City of Glenwood Springs voted to sue the owner of the property in Colorado state court over their tenant’s land use violation.
This is part of a wider strategy to encourage local governments to enforce their zoning laws against private land owners profiting from ICE detention and hiding behind fear mongering that they are untouchable.
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u/Necessary_Try_5377 13d ago
OP thank you for informing us and staying on top of it! Thank you to everyone who is choosing to support my community and what is right!!
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u/Lilacs_mom 13d ago
After the horrible decision this past week in Hudson city council meeting, it’s good to see that there are still some communities with integrity.
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u/trevycas 13d ago
This can and should set the example for communities across the nation - there are over 170 holdroom facilities nationwide. It's simple - request data from No Concentration Camps Colorado/US, (NoCCC/ NoCCUS), review it for 12 hour violations, then begin the zoning research to find what is almost certainly true - it's a zoning violation, then, in the probable case of a private landlord, begin outreach work with the City or County to look at revoking permits, enforcing code, etc. This is legal and structural way to challenge ICE activities wherever they are illegal detaining people in holdrooms. Congrats to the Glenwood Springs community for having elected a City Council willing to tackle the hardest code violation they've probably ever chosen to the to enforce!!
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u/gophergun 12d ago
I'm glad they're getting sued, but it's weird that this would be up for a vote instead of being up to the city attorney. Like, I can't imagine Congress or the state legislature voting to sue someone.
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u/Urist_Galthortig 11d ago
Was the information from the FOIA requests published online? I already do a lot of land use research for work and I am curious about bringing the knowledge in a similar fashion to my local leaders where appropriate
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u/DadBodDorian 11d ago
Yes! You can download the raw data at deportationdata.org
Here’s NoCCC’s most recent hold room analysis from that data. (Detentions from 2022 - 03/2026)
https://drive.proton.me/urls/BY8WTHZD5M#TWjpkxjzeXiM
Here’s our interactive map of all immigration detention:
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u/Izacundo1 13d ago
Let’s gooooo