A federal judge in Denver this week blocked provisions of a new state law that required Colorado’s only immigrant detention center to open its doors for regular health inspections.
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The Thursday decision from U.S. District Court Judge Daniel D. Domenico defangs the most immediate part of House Bill 1276, which Democratic lawmakers passed earlier this year.
Siding in large part with a request from Geo Group, the private company that runs the Aurora detention center, Domenico found that HB 1276’s provisions requiring unannounced inspections at least once every three months were preempted by federal law and Geo’s existing contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
He wrote that the newly required inspections — and a companion provision that directed Geo to pay for them — “are currently in effect, imposing actual burdens on Geo of more frequent and costly inspections.” He said the new rules were likely unconstitutional.
Domenico noted that Geo’s contract with ICE is due to expire Oct. 15. He set his injunction to end on that date because the “provisions of any new contract that GEO (or another operator) obtains from the federal government may alter the analysis significantly, or make proceeding further with this case unnecessary at all.”
Aside from requiring more regular inspections, HB 1276 also empowers state health officials to impose other regulations on Geo, including requiring specific medical staffing and preventing Geo from blocking outside infectious disease inspections. Lawyers for the state have argued in court that those provisions aren’t in effect yet and that the state has no immediate plans to bring them into effect.
As a result, Domenico did not block them — though he suggested that “should enforcement of those provisions become imminent, this analysis might change.”
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A spokesman for Geo did not immediately return a message seeking comment; the company recently announced plans to open another ICE-contracted detention center in Hudson, north of Denver. The Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition, which backed HB 1276, also did not immediately provide comment.
In a statement, Attorney General Phil Weiser called the ruling a “narrow, temporary injunction” and noted that Domenico did not undo other, pre-existing state laws. Domenico’s ruling did leave intact county officials’ ability to inspect Geo at their discretion, and he did not touch other provisions unrelated to facility inspections.
Still, Domenico’s opinion is a blow to the only part of Colorado Democrats’ immigration package to survive the 2026 legislative session. Lawmakers killed two other measures, and Gov. Jared Polis vetoed a third.
More fundamentally, the ruling lays bare the core challenge for legislators hoping to put state-level constraints on the Trump administration’s immigration efforts. Immigration enforcement is generally a federal duty, and its operation is carried out chiefly by either federal agents or federal contractors, like Geo — whicih are often outside the scope of state officials’ regulatory authority
The opinion also comes amid intense scrutiny over the conditions inside the Aurora facility: On Wednesday, Weiser’s office sued Geo for blocking state health inspectors from carrying out a tuberculosis investigation tied to the detention center.
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