Protesters target ICE ‘hold site’

Centennial, Colorado

Over 100 people protested on April 25 at the Denver Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Field Office in Centennial, Colorado — one of nine reported ICE facilities for temporary immigrant detention. These “hold rooms” have sometimes been referred to by protesters as “black sites” due to their undisclosed, unlisted and unmarked locations. The Colorado Times Recorder revealed in March that ICE was detaining people at nine secret locations throughout Colorado that it called “hold rooms.”

The Denver ICE Field Office, a large single-story brick and concrete building, is set back from the road where protesters gathered with signs and speeches. Referred to by ICE as DENHOLD, it was originally allowed to hold a person for three hours before they would be transported to a recognized detention center. The Department of Homeland Security later increased hold times to 12 hours. The hold rooms are reported to have no cots, mattresses, blankets, food, bathrooms or showers. The floors are concrete.

Nothing is known about how health care or other needs, such as family visits, phone calls and obtaining legal assistance, are met. The hold rooms are air-conditioned and kept very cold according to people who have been detained there. These sites are not regulated and exist without even the most basic standards or oversight that is supposed to exist in designated detention centers.

A report by Berkeley Law School’s Deportation Data Project found that 3,576 people were kept in the hold room in Centennial from October 2022 to March 2026. Up to 135 people have been held at a given time. Of the people who have been detained there during that period, 173 have been children.

A 10-year-old child was held for 3.5 days, sleeping on concrete in the cold.  Two men were held for 36 and 39 days respectively. Elderly people have also reportedly been kept in these conditions.

Communities are demanding answers about the conditions at all of the so-called “hold rooms.” These sites were found in strip malls, warehouses and old unmarked buildings. Pictures are included in the Colorado Times Recorder report. They are hidden in plain sight.

“Communities Not Cages” are the fighting words used against detention centers, such as the one run for ICE by the private company GEO in Aurora, Colorado, and these secret “black sites,” where immigrants’ most basic human needs are not met and their legal rights are trampled upon. These sites terrorize people. There is no communication or accountability.

The Immigrant Partnership Teams organization is working to bring these egregious crimes against our immigrant neighbors to light. The group, which is organizing to protect people, can be reached at coloradoipt.org

Information was handed out at the protest for people to call their representatives and speak out at city council meetings against current and future detention centers and for the closure of these hold rooms, which are a threat to the well-being of everyone.