Feds eye Colorado Springs for new ICE detention center

Editor's note: On July 10, we reported that Baptiste was considering 3625 Parkmoor Village Dr. as a potential site for an ICE detention facility. That report was based on documents dated February 17, 2025.

Since then, the property has been sold. El Paso County records confirm the building changed ownership in June. A representative for the new owner, CommuniCare, states the company has no plans to use the site for any ICE-related purposes.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) – The Trump administration is looking at potentially bringing new U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities to Colorado as part of President Donald Trump's mass deportation plan – including one in Colorado Springs.

Federal documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit show that some proposed facilities are in southern Colorado: two in Walsenburg, one in La Junta, and one in Colorado Springs. The last proposed location is in Hudson, which is northeast of Denver.

The proposed Colorado Springs location is the former Cheyenne Mountain Reentry Center on East Las Vegas Street in southeast Colorado Springs.

The Cheyenne Mountain Reentry Center is a former prison, shut down in 2020 as part of Governor Jared Polis' plan to shift Colorado away from private prisons. It's owned by the Florida-based Geo Group, one of the largest prison companies in the United States.

Geo Group already runs Colorado's only current ICE detention facility in Aurora, which has the capacity for over 1,500 detainees.

According to the Geo Group, the Cheyenne Mountain Center could hold up to 700 detainees.

The Huerfano County Correctional Center in Walsenburg is another location being considered by the administration. The private prison, owned by CoreCivic, has been closed for over a decade but formerly held Colorado and Arizona state prisoners.

It closed in 2010 after Arizona officials decided to phase out all out-of-state beds, including their use of the Huerfano County Correctional Center. However, the facility could still hold over 750 people, the company has told ICE.

The three other potential Colorado locations include:

• The Baptiste Migrant Detention Facility in La Junta, owned by the Baptiste Group, formerly a Boys’ Ranch facility last used in 2023. The Baptiste Group has operated other migrant children’s facilities, including one at Homestead, Florida.
• Hudson Correctional Facility in Hudson, owned by real estate investment trust Highlands REIT. This facility is a prison formerly leased to GEO, which incarcerated Alaska state prisoners under contract, and was shut down in 2014.
• Apex Site Services, a provider of temporary structures and modular buildings, proposed a soft-sided detention facility in Walsenberg, and BHPE LLC (Begini Howard Private Equity), a private equity firm, also submitted proposals.

These facilities would support ICE's Denver Field Office, which has seen a significant rise in arrests under the Trump administration.

A spokesperson with ICE provided the following statement:

"U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s enhanced enforcement operations and routine daily operations have resulted in a significant number of arrests of criminal aliens that require greater detention capacity. While we cannot confirm individual pre-decisional conversations, we can confirm that ICE is exploring all options to meet its current and future detention requirements."

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