New ICE facility in Hudson, Colorado to be called Big Horn, run by GEO

A Freedom of Information Act lawsuit is yielding new details about how Immigration and Customs Enforcement plans to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on detention capacity in Colorado.

"We're still trying to pry the documents from ICE's hands," said Timothy Macdonald, Legal Director for the American Civil Liberties of Colorado.

For months, the ACLU of Colorado has been working to obtain details about how ICE intends to spend taxpayer funds to detain more people in the state.

Although new documents are heavily redacted, they show the private prison company GEO Group that operates the detention center in Aurora was approved for a $39 Million contract to operate a facility in Hudson, Colorado for six months.  ICE is referring to that facility as the Big Horn Correctional Facility.

The documents show that GEO was awarded a sole source contract to operate Big Horn.

CBS Colorado reached out to GEO for comment and is awaiting a response.

The Huerfano Correctional Facility in Walsenburg was shown as "funded" - but additional details were not given.

"When are they planning to open them? How are they going to hold people? That's something all of us need to know," said Macdonald. "And it's fundamentally part of transparency and the democratic process."

"ICE" has not responded to a request for comment today.  But in the past told us that,   "Enhanced enforcement operations... have resulted in a significant number of arrests of criminal aliens that require greater detention capacity… We can confirm that ICE is exploring all options to meet its current and future detention requirements."

The documents obtained by the ACLU of Colorado can be viewed on the ACLU's website.