The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility in Aurora has long been a source of tension in the community. Recently, members of Colorado’s congressional delegation uncovered that the immigration officials were unable to provide basic information during oversight visits, sparking renewed attention on the facility.
The Aurora detention center is run by GEO Group, a private prison company that operates prisons in four different countries, which currently has a supervisor who sits on Aurora’s City Council, Amsalu Kassaw.
Kassaw was appointed to fill an at-large council seat following the resignation of Dustin Zvonek. Kassaw immigrated to the United States from Ethiopia and has been working at GEO Group’s ICE facility for over a decade.
Both the Aurora facility and GEO Group have faced numerous allegations of human rights abuses. At the Aurora detention facility alone, there have been several deaths over the years due to the alleged neglect on the part of GEO, including inadequate access to food and medical care. Human rights groups accuse the facility of perpetuating physical abuse, racial targeting, and overuse and arbitrary application of solitary confinement.
The GEO Group has been sued by the state of Washington over for forcing detainees to work for $1 a day and has been the subject of a class-action lawsuit that alleges that a private prison company engaged in a “months-long poisoning” of over 1,000 inmates. With the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration and immigrant communities, American citizens and legal U.S. residents have been swept up in ICE immigration raids, some ending up in facilities run by GEO Group.
Kassaw recently spoke with the Colorado Times Recorder about his work with GEO Group and that he was proud of the work they do.
When asked if he has seen in uptick in incarceration at the facility in recent months, Kassaw made the bizarre claim that they do not “have incarceration” at the detention center.
“Our detention center is one of the best locations,” Kassaw said. “We serve the people there with dignity and humanity. The people that work at that ICE center for GEO, 50% of the workers there are also immigrants who came from other countries. As a lieutenant, I tell my employees all the time to be professional and handle people with human dignity.”
Kassaw touted that the Aurora facility employed a number of immigrants, like himself. However, Kassaw refused to speak to any of the numerous allegations of human rights abuses at the facility and by GEO Group on the whole.
“I can’t speak on [the deaths at the facility],” Kassaw said when asked about those who died at the Aurora ICE detention center. “I know that it is under investigation, and I’m not allowed to speak on that definitively.”
Kassaw dismissed accusations that they didn’t provide adequate medical care, saying that they have doctors and psychiatrists who work at that facility. Kassaw could not confirm the number of deaths at the facility.
In regards to members of Colorado’s congressional delegation being denied entry and not being provided with information during the oversight visit, Kassaw said he had a “good conversation” with U.S. Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO).
“I did speak with Congressman Jason Crow and have had a good connection with him when he came to our building,” Kassaw said. “When he came into our building, I told him we treated people with respect and dignity. He came in on Sunday and no one was working so I explained to him to come back on a different day, we did not deny him.”
Crow has refuted Kassaw’s account, saying that DHS and immigration officials at the facility denied him access when he tried to visit the facility in July. Crow would go on to sue the Trump administration, arguing that they violated federal law that guarantees members of Congress immediate access to detention facilities.
Kassaw did not speak on Crow’s statement that officials at the facility were unable to answer basic questions regarding their operations.
The Aurora ICE detention facility has been the site of ongoing protests by immigrant rights groups in Colorado who have been demanding the release of advocate Jeannette Vizguerra.
