Together Colorado Sues Town of Hudson Over GEO Group's Big Horn ICE Detention Facility Zoning

Faith nonprofit Together Colorado filed suit July 23, 2026 in Weld County District Court against the Town of Hudson, challenging the 2,700-bed GEO Group “Big Horn” ICE detention facility as not a permitted use under Hudson’s Land Development Code — no special use permit was ever sought or granted for the conversion. ICE had already signed the $528.6M five-year contract with GEO Group on July 9 (2026-07-09–geo-group-529m-hudson-colorado-big-horn-detention-contract) to convert the shuttered Hudson Correctional Facility, nearly doubling Colorado’s ICE detention capacity. Town officials had claimed they lacked authority to intervene in a federally-contracted facility; the lawsuit directly contests that claim, with Weld County resident Janet Carlson joining as co-plaintiff.

This is a legal theory distinct from the NEPA/environmental-review challenges that have paused warehouse conversions elsewhere (Surprise, AZ; Williamsport, MD) — it argues municipal zoning authority survives federal end-use, testing whether a town’s own land-development code can constrain a facility already under signed federal contract, just two weeks after the deal closed. A ruling either way will bear directly on the dozens of other GEO Group and CoreCivic conversions moving through similar local-permitting gaps nationwide.