{"id":124,"date":"2026-05-07T22:03:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T22:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/denvermovingchronicle.com\/?p=124"},"modified":"2026-05-07T22:03:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T22:03:08","slug":"aurora-council-seeks-to-oversee-geo-ice-detention-center-via-contracts-inspections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/denvermovingchronicle.com\/?p=124","title":{"rendered":"Aurora Council seeks to oversee GEO ICE detention center via contracts, inspections"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><strong>AURORA<\/strong> | Progressive Aurora City Council members are working to strengthen the city\u2019s oversight of the GEO Group\u2019s ICE immigration detention center in the city.<\/p>\n<p>At the May 5 study session, Councilmember Gianina Horton introduced a resolution that would give city council oversight on contracts with immigration enforcement and detention agencies, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement and GEO Group.<\/p>\n<p>She also introduced an ordinance requiring detention facilities in the city to undergo regular city inspections.<\/p>\n<p>City Attorney Pete Schulte said the city doesn\u2019t currently have any contracts or pending contracts with the GEO facility, but any future contracts would be subject to the proposed resolution. Some potential examples for future contracts could be for trash services or snow removal.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>Currently, the city manager, not city council, approves contracts under $50,000. Under the proposal, contracts with detention and immigration agencies of any amount would go to council.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t expect this to happen ever, or rarely if so, but it is a safeguard council can put in place,\u201d Schulte said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Councilmember Fran\u00e7oise Bergan called the resolution \u201cperformative,\u201d saying she didn\u2019t see the need for the change because the city doesn\u2019t have contracts with the federal government and any memoranda of understanding already go before council. She also pointed out that the city does not have authority over federal government property.<\/p>\n<p>Schulte confirmed that the city is limited in the authority it has over federal government property.<\/p>\n<p>Similarly, with the proposed inspection ordinance, Bergan called the effort a waste of time because the city doesn\u2019t have a health department to participate in inspections. Arapahoe, Adams and Douglas counties overlap the city, and each have their own health department. The GEO ICE detention center is in Adams County.<\/p>\n<p>Schulte said the inspection ordinance is a key step to being able to enforce the city\u2019s oversight abilities, but it will likely not automatically grant city officials access to federal facilities.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe could show up at the door and say \u2018hey, we\u2019re here to do an inspection\u2019 and they could say \u2018bug off,\u2019 \u2026 and we could regroup and figure out what our next steps are,\u201d Schulte said.<\/p>\n<p>Councilmember Curtis Gardner asked what the inspections would cost the city to do and questioned whether there would be redundancy with the county\u2019s health inspections. Staff had not yet determined what the cost for inspections would be.<\/p>\n<p>Councilmember Angela Lawson also raised concerns that lawsuits stemming from the resolution and ordinance would use taxpayer money.<\/p>\n<p>The resolution and ordinance stem from a number of concerns with the health and safety of people detained at the GEO facility. Earlier this year, the Adams County Health Department reported that staff at the GEO facility delayed and denied access to facility employees during an investigation about a potential flu outbreak.\u00a0<br \/>Another report from the Colorado chapter of the American Friends Service Committee alleged the facility doesn\u2019t provide enough food or adequate medical care, according to reporting from Colorado Newsline.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/denvermovingchronicle.com\/?p=118\">In a low period for comedy films, these were the best of the last decade<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/denvermovingchronicle.com\/?p=120\">Nathan MacKinnon delivers off big hits, scoring as Avalanche seize a 2-0 edge in series with Wild<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/denvermovingchronicle.com\/?p=122\">Benge and Vientos lead the Mets to a 4-2 victory over the skidding Rockies in early start<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>AURORA | Progressive Aurora City Council members are working to strengthen the city\u2019s oversight of the GEO Group\u2019s ICE immigration detention center in the city. At the May 5 study session, Councilmember Gianina Horton introduced a resolution that would give city council oversight on contracts with immigration enforcement and detention agencies, including Immigration and Customs [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":123,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[26,27,371,372,113,373,374,375],"class_list":["post-124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-metro","tag-aurora","tag-city-council","tag-councilmember-angela-lawson","tag-councilmember-curtis-gardner","tag-councilmember-francoise-bergan","tag-councilmember-gianina-horton","tag-geo-group","tag-pete-schulte"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Aurora Council seeks to oversee GEO ICE detention center via contracts, inspections - Denver Moving Chronicle<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/denvermovingchronicle.com\/?p=124\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Aurora Council seeks to oversee GEO ICE detention center via contracts, inspections - Denver Moving Chronicle\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"AURORA | Progressive Aurora City Council members are working to strengthen the city\u2019s oversight of the GEO Group\u2019s ICE immigration detention center in the city. At the May 5 study session, Councilmember Gianina Horton introduced a resolution that would give city council oversight on contracts with immigration enforcement and detention agencies, including Immigration and Customs [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/denvermovingchronicle.com\/?p=124\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Denver Moving Chronicle\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-07T22:03:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/denvermovingchronicle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/457bc7b8fc99bebdb6d8d827a107f08e.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1313\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"876\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/denvermovingchronicle.com\\\/?p=124#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/denvermovingchronicle.com\\\/?p=124\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/denvermovingchronicle.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/860d8c9be7e4969f72ed251197548d9b\"},\"headline\":\"Aurora Council seeks to oversee GEO ICE detention center via contracts, inspections\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-07T22:03:08+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/denvermovingchronicle.com\\\/?p=124\"},\"wordCount\":564,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/denvermovingchronicle.com\\\/?p=124#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/denvermovingchronicle.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/457bc7b8fc99bebdb6d8d827a107f08e.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Aurora\",\"city council\",\"Councilmember Angela Lawson\",\"Councilmember Curtis Gardner\",\"Councilmember Fran\u00e7oise Bergan\",\"Councilmember Gianina Horton\",\"geo group\",\"Pete Schulte\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Metro\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/denvermovingchronicle.com\\\/?p=124#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/denvermovingchronicle.com\\\/?p=124\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/denvermovingchronicle.com\\\/?p=124\",\"name\":\"Aurora Council seeks to oversee GEO ICE detention center via contracts, inspections - Denver Moving Chronicle\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/denvermovingchronicle.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/denvermovingchronicle.com\\\/?p=124#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/denvermovingchronicle.com\\\/?p=124#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/denvermovingchronicle.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/457bc7b8fc99bebdb6d8d827a107f08e.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-07T22:03:08+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/denvermovingchronicle.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/860d8c9be7e4969f72ed251197548d9b\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/denvermovingchronicle.com\\\/?p=124#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/denvermovingchronicle.com\\\/?p=124\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/denvermovingchronicle.com\\\/?p=124#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/denvermovingchronicle.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/457bc7b8fc99bebdb6d8d827a107f08e.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/denvermovingchronicle.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/457bc7b8fc99bebdb6d8d827a107f08e.jpg\",\"width\":1313,\"height\":876,\"caption\":\"This Saturday, April 15, 2017, photograph shows the entrance to the GEO Group's immigrant detention facility in Aurora, Colo. People once held in a privately run Colorado immigration detention center are challenging the system used to keep it clean and maintained, arguing it borders on slavery. They have won the right to sue GEO Group on behalf of an estimated 60,000 people held at its detention center near Denver over a decade. 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