GEO Group Wins $528.6M ICE Contract to Reopen Shuttered Hudson, CO Prison as Big Horn Detention Facility

ICE signed a five-year, $528.6 million contract on July 9, 2026 with GEO Group to reopen the shuttered Hudson Correctional Facility in Weld County, Colorado as the “Big Horn Facility” — a 1,200-bed immigration detention center that nearly doubles Colorado’s ICE detention capacity to roughly 2,720 beds combined with the existing 1,532-bed Aurora Contract Detention Facility, also GEO-operated. GEO earns an estimated $85M annually under the contract; rent to the facility’s owner starts at $250K/month on August 1 and ramps to approximately $1M/month once the facility reaches full occupancy. The ACLU of Colorado, which obtained planning documents, flags that the nearest hospital is 12 miles away and the nearest fire station 2 miles away.

This extends GEO Group’s dominant position in the detention-industrial buildout the timeline already tracks, and sets up the immediate zoning fight documented separately (2026-07-23–weld-hudson-county-co-geo-big-horn-zoning-lawsuit) — Colorado becomes a major new ICE detention hub within weeks of the state’s own unannounced-inspection law taking effect (2026-06-04–colorado-hb-1276-state-unannounced-ice-detention-inspection-authority), setting up a direct test of whether that new state authority can reach a facility this large.