Following the Colorado Times Recorder’s investigation into nine previously unknown ICE detention facilities across the state, activists have organized a daily sit-in at one of the sites in Fredrick. FRDHOLD, as the hold room is referred to by DHS and ICE, was the second most used of the Colorado facilities, with more than 500 individuals held at the site from January to October 2025.
Since activists began monitoring the site at the start of the week, they’ve documented no additional detentions and described the employees of the site as having tried to avoid being filmed while outside of the building.
“I want to be a deterrent,” said Erin, the sit-in’s organizer, who chose to be identified by a pseudonym. “At some point, I want a 24/7 vigil like they have at [the Aurora ICE detention facility], to have people watching how long they’re holding people here.”
Data obtained by CTR shows that a 31-year-old man was held at the site for 34 days in July and August, despite the agency’s own rules that say detainees may not be kept in hold rooms for more than 72 hours. The youngest detainees held during the time period were two 6-year-olds – one boy and one girl. The oldest was a 71-year-old Chinese man with no apparent criminal record.
The facility is located in a business park just off of I-25 and — save for the fenced parking lot, myriad security cameras, and DHS logo on the door — is hardly any different from the several dozen other buildings around it.
CTR reached out to an ICE spokesperson for specifics about the Fredrick facility, including whether detainees have access to legal representation and how oversight is conducted, but has not yet received a response. This article will be updated with any comments received.
In a statement released to Fox31, ICE confirmed the use of suboffices to detain individuals, including children, and that they “conform to all national detention standards and are inspected regularly.”
The Fredrick sit-in is just one of several ways in which Colorado activists and elected officials have responded to news that ICE’s hold rooms in the state are apparently out of compliance with ICE’s own rules. On Wednesday, all six Democratic members of Colorado’s congressional delegation sent a letter to DHS and ICE leadership demanding that they “immediately” stop holding people for “extended periods of time in small, confined rooms that are meant to be a temporary holding space.”
Also on Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse attempted to inspect another hold room in Grand Junction, but no agency personnel presented themselves, and all entrances to the building were locked. Last week, a CTR reporter joined state Rep. Manny Rutinel on a similar visit to the Fredrick hold room and was also unable to enter the site or speak to any personnel.
For several months, there have also been weekly vigils outside of the Aurora ICE detention facility, the largest in the state and the state’s only ICE detention center where stays beyond 72 hours are permitted under the agency’s rules.
Activists targeting ICE in Colorado believe their efforts can have an impact.
After Voces Unidos, a Colorado immigrants’ rights group, accused ICE officers of leaving “death cards” in the abandoned cars of individuals detained late last year, a senior official in Denver’s U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office testified in a court hearing Wednesday that the officers involved had been removed from the field and that an investigation into the incident was stil underway.
