This interview with RMIAN Executive Director Mekela Goehring examines that dangers of a private company operating immigrant detention centers. GEO Group, a private company operating immigrant detention centers, is set to expand its holding capacity in Colorado after signing a $529 million contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to open a new center just north of Denver International Airport.

The move comes as GEO continues to deny health officials access to determine the extent of a tuberculosis outbreak reported in its Aurora facility.

Mekela Goehring, executive director of the Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network, which represents detained individuals, says GEO’s mandate to create profit for shareholders is fundamentally at odds with the health and well-being of people being held.

"Costs are cut in terms of the medical care that's provided to individuals and in terms of the provision of food and services," Goehring outlined. "You simply are not running a facility in the way that it would be run if profit wasn't the number one motive."

House Plan to Pass Anti-Children, Anti-Family, and Anti-Asylum H.R. 9773 Is Abdication of Congress’ Commitment to Freedom.

Over 100 national, state, and local groups call on Congress to uniformly reject HR 9773

After writing a historic blank check to ICE and Border Patrol to further assault our communities, the Trump administration’s allies in Congress are eyeing their next target: children and people fleeing for their lives. The House Judiciary Committee is moving to mark up a new version of H.R.2, a bill anti-immigrant members of Congress first introduced in 2023 to spread fear of a “mass invasion” by immigrants, pit American citizens against their immigrant neighbors, and scapegoat them for the nation’s problems. If passed, this bill would codify the most extreme anti-asylum and anti-children policies in modern American history.

While wrongly touted as a “border security” bill, HR 9773 would have disastrous consequences for people who live here. The bill creates arbitrary penalties to criminalize longtime community members who will suddenly face deportation, when combined with the recent policy aimed at severely restricting the ability for people to gain permanent status in the United States. This will lead to families being separated, chaos in our work force, and an expansion of immigration detention and deportation for longtime residents, including those pushed out of status due to U.S. bureaucratic delays.   

Advocacy groups say detainees are getting photocopies of mail, letters are being returned to sender with long delays.

Natalie Petrucci, detention program deputy managing attorney at the Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network, said their organization has also seen a change in immigrants’ mail services, including long delays in sending and receiving mail.

As people make their way through immigration court, oftentimes the only way they can present evidence to help obtain asylum or bond is via documents sent through the mail, like letters confirming they have housing or documented proof that they’ve paid taxes, Petrucci said. With mail held up in sometimes months-long backlogs, Petrucci said immigrants within the detention center have to attend court hearings without the evidence they need to advocate for themselves.

“People are having to move forward on their cases without their critical case evidence,” Petrucci said. “We know of examples where their mail didn’t make it in time for their court cases.”

RMIAN is deeply disturbed by the shooting that occurred outside the Aurora immigration detention facility last night during a community protest. We are relieved that the injured protester is expected to survive, and our thoughts are with them as they recover.

Everyone has the fundamental and constitutional right to peacefully protest and to speak out against injustice without fear of violence. We unequivocally condemn this shooting and any act of violence that threatens the safety of those exercising their constitutional rights. This violence serves to intimidate and instill fear in our communities, in those held in the facility, and in those speaking up for immigrant rights. 

For years, community members have gathered outside the Aurora immigration detention facility to peacefully bear witness to the harms of immigration detention and to advocate for the dignity and rights of those inside. Their voices are an essential part of our democracy.

As the investigation moves forward, we urge a full, transparent, and independent review of this incident. Violence has no place in our communities, and those responsible must be held accountable.

RMIAN remains steadfast in our commitment to protecting the rights of immigrants, advocating for an end to the expansion of immigration detention, and supporting the right of community members to peacefully demand a more just and humane immigration system

This article from CBS News discusses the new detention facility in Colorado. A government contractor announced Monday it has entered into a five-year agreement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to open a new federal immigration processing center northeast of Denver in Hudson.

The facility will be located in a former prison complex that has sat empty since 2014. The complex is owned by a real estate investment trust, Highlands REIT, and was opened in the 2000s. It was known as the Hudson Correctional Facility but will now be renamed the Big Horn Facility.

"We denounce this profit-motivated contract that will deeply harm immigrant communities in Colorado and our state as a whole," stated Mekela Goehring, executive director of Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network.

This article from The Denver Post investigates an active case of tuberculosis at the Aurora immigration detention center. Adams County health officials confirmed the case, but they said facility officials haven’t complied with a public health order requiring access and interviews of affected detainees.

Shira Hereld, an attorney for the Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network who works with detainees, said they were aware of two people who were placed in “precautionary” quarantine. Hereld said one sick patient was also moved from the facility, though it was unclear if that person had tuberculosis.

MEDIA INQUIRIES

Contacts:

Jodi Vongsakoun, development@rmian.org, RMIAN Director of Development & Communications

Mekela Goehring, mgoehring@rmian.org, RMIAN Executive Director

Westminster, Colorado, July 13, 2026—Today GEO Group announced that they have signed a five-year contract for $529 million with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to open a new immigration detention center in Hudson, Colorado, just north of Denver International Airport.

Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network (RMIAN) adamantly opposes and condemns the opening of this immigration detention facility, or any other immigration detention facility in Colorado.

“For over 25 years, RMIAN has worked at the Aurora immigration detention center, providing free legal information, legal representation, and social services to detained individuals in immigration proceedings. Our clients include long-standing and treasured community members, beloved family members, asylum seekers, survivors of trafficking and other crimes, young adults, and elders—all of whom have been imprisoned solely because of a civil immigration infraction. The impact of detention is far-reaching and devastating. We denounce this profit-motivated contract that will deeply harm immigrant communities in Colorado and our state as a whole,” states Mekela Goehring, Executive Director of Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network.

RMIAN is seeking a Director of Social Work to lead the next chapter of its Social Service Project’s vital services, and to manage and support a strong team of social workers. The Director of Social Work will direct program strategy; supervise members of the team; oversee day-to-day operations, including grant management, evaluation and reporting; liaise with community partners and funders; carry a limited caseload; and participate on RMIAN’s Leadership Team to carry out the organization’s mission and strategic priorities.

The Andrew Carnegie Foundation announced its annual list of “Great Immigrants, Great Americans” yesterday, recognizing 25 distinguished naturalized citizens whose contributions have strengthened America. We are excited to share that the honorees include RMIAN Founding Board Member, Hiroshi Motomura! Professor Motomura, a leading scholar of U.S. immigration and citizenship law, said “I’m honored to be part of the 2026 Class, especially at this moment. Immigrants have been part of this nation since its inception, though it is sometimes forgotten in these times. And I am a small part of a greater story that reminds us that those who come to the United States help create a stronger union. I am grateful to Andrew Carnegie Foundation for this recognition.”

This article from CPR News highlights the relief felt by immigrants and allies after SCOTUS upheld the right to birthright citizenship. Tami Goodlette, RMIAN's Vice President of Legal Programs, said the alternate decision would have sparked widespread chaos for the organization’s hundreds of clients.

“Children who would have been born to our clients here in this country would not have been citizens and that would have had a devastating effect,” Goodlette said. “And that’s not only on their families but also on hundreds of thousands of children and babies born in the United States going forward.”