As the federal government seeks to expand immigrant detention capacity in Colorado, some advocates say that detainees’ right to an attorney is being compromised at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Aurora.
The detention center is run by the private prison company GEO Group through a contract with ICE.
“It’s becoming very, very difficult to even talk to the individuals that are inside, and even more difficult to be able to do a legal visit, to be able to prepare a case,” said Denver immigration lawyer Cristina Uribe Reyes.
Ever since two immigrant detainees escaped after a power outage at the facility in March, the detention center now has multiple daily head counts, says Uribe Reyes.
Detainee at Aurora Immigration Detention Center in 2019.
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“They do pause all activity for about 45 minutes before the count, during the count, and so it really does limit the amount of time that somebody can go and access an individual that’s detained,” said Uribe Reyes.
Phone service is shut down frequently, she adds, and there are excessive waits for phone access.
“Even just making a phone call into the facility is difficult,” said Uribe Reyes.
Kevin O’Connor, a U.S. Army veteran & immigration lawyer, said, “I represent clients in immigration courts across the country, and for whatever reason, the Aurora, Colorado location has given me nothing but problems. They’ve given my legal assistant problems.”
O’Connor says frontline staff at the GEO facility openly complain, “At one point, the GEO employees have communicated to me that they’re understaffed, or that there’s nobody that wants to supervise a legal visit.”
Detainee at the Aurora Immigration Detention Center, in August 2019.
CBS
O’Connor said on one occasion, when he visited, the air conditioner was not working in the legal consultation room. “They had a big size industrial fan, and it took me probably about an hour and a half to find a GEO employee who would supervise the legal visit, and the front desk made a comment and said that because it’s so hot in that room, nobody wanted to staff it.”
O’Connor hired another Army veteran, Ryan Krebbs, getting him clearance from ICE to act as a legal assistant.
“The front desk area, they’re supposed to have a G-28 on file, I think it’s the G-28 that says you have clearance from ICE. And a lot of times, they don’t have those things in there. Mine wasn’t in there, for example,” said Krebbs.
Krebbs says the facility is not only understaffed, but those who are working there are also undertrained.
“I think that they’re just kind of trying to get people in, trying to fill shoes, and the training probably isn’t there, it really isn’t,” said Krebbs.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement directed us to the GEO Group to respond to the allegations.
GEO didn’t respond to our specific questions about staffing or wait times but said, “GEO strongly rejects these baseless allegations. In all instances, our support services are monitored by ICE, including by on-site agency personnel, and other organizations within the Department of Homeland Security to ensure strict compliance with ICE detention standards.”
Uribe Reyes said, “We’re hearing one thing from GEO, it’s probably a well-run operation for their investors, but not for any of the people that are working there or that are detained there or that have to have any interaction with attorneys.”
Krebbs is frustrated by the issues he says are preventing detainees from accessing their right to legal counsel, “This is America, and it’s in our Constitution, what I served the country to protect was things like your right to due process, your right to an attorney, and that applies to all people within this border, not just U.S. citizens.”
GEO’s spokesperson added, “GEO provides all detainees with access to legal services, such as in-person and virtual attorney visitation, which includes dedicated space for confidential attorney-client visitation. Virtual attorney visitation is facilitated through the use of tablets.”
O’Connor says the challenges he’s encountered rise to the level of misconduct, which he’s raised, he says, to GEO, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Immigration Court, which is operated by the U.S. Department of Justice Executive Office of Immigration Review.
“Misconduct occurs when staff decline to supervise a legal visit, leaving my client unable to meet with me or my assistant. Denial of access to counsel occurs when phones are turned off or when communication devices are unavailable,” said O’Connor. “These are not abstract policy questions; they are daily, concrete barriers to due process, and they undermine confidence in GEO’s ability to operate the facility safely and professionally.” The gap between what GEO says is happening on paper and what happens in practice is precisely the issue, adds O’Connor.
Immigrant advocates say by not providing legal services that are accessible in practice, it’s ultimately costing taxpayers.
“It’s costing more money and it’s costing more time, it’s inefficient, and so we really need to be looking at this for those reasons,” said Uribe Reyes. “We are working against filing deadlines and hearing dates. We don’t have the luxury to just come back in a day or two.”
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Krebbs says everyone should be concerned with how immigrant detainees are treated, adding, “I want to be on the right side of history.”
Immigration lawyers point to another practice they’re seeing: the frequent movement of detainees between facilities, without notice, often right before an immigration hearing, which means lawyers have to go back to square one on those cases. “The issue with clients being bounced around from one detention center to another is that every time they’re moved, jurisdiction changes,” said Uribe Reyes. A detainee may successfully find a new lawyer in another state, only to be transferred again, she adds.
They say that is also inefficient and severely compromises the legal right to counsel.
A lawyer with Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network, operating in Colorado since the early 1990s, says the issues raised track with what they are seeing, and it’s a marked difference from previous experience.
GEO Group didn’t respond to questions about why detainees are moved frequently, but said it places strict limits on a facility’s capacity, and that its facilities are never overcrowded.