The Buckley Space Force Base sign is seen on July 7, 2021, shortly after a base renaming ceremony where the base entry sign was updated showcasing the new base name. Buckley SFB hosts six major base partners including Space Delta 4, 140th Wing, Colorado Air National Guard, the Navy Operational Support Center, the Aerospace Data Facility-Colorado, the Army Aviation Support Facility and the Air Reserve Personnel Center. (Senior Airman Danielle McBride/U.S. Space Force/Public domain)
Buckley Space Force Base in Aurora is serving as a staging ground and detention center for federal immigration enforcement, military officials confirmed Tuesday, as President Donald Trump’s administration moves forward with plans for an unprecedented campaign of mass deportations in Colorado and around the country.
In a written statement, Buckley’s office of public affairs said that the former Air Force base, a sprawling installation that houses 3,500 active-duty personnel on the eastern edge of the Denver metro area, is “providing facilities” to Immigrations and Customs Enforcement at the request of the Department of Homeland Security.
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“ICE requirements for the facility include a temporary operations center, staging area, and a temporary holding location for the receiving, holding, and processing of criminal aliens,” a spokesperson said. “This facility will be manned by ICE senior leaders, special agents, and analysts, as well as members of DHS Components and other federal law enforcement agencies.”
Aurora is home to a permanent ICE facility, a processing center operated by private prison company The GEO Group, which has a total potential capacity of 1,532 detainees. The facility has long been the target of criticism from activists over allegations of inhumane conditions and dehumanizing treatment.
In his second term, Trump has vowed to carry out the “largest domestic deportation operation in American history.” By his own estimation, his “deport them all” agenda would apply to more than 20 million people, though credible estimates put the country’s true undocumented population at around 12 million.
Any program at that scale would require massive expansions of ICE’s detention capacity. Stephen Miller, Trump’s top immigration adviser, told the New York Times last year that would shift from targeted enforcement operations to mass roundups, involving what he called “vast holding facilities that would function as staging centers” — plans that critics of Trump’s deportation agenda have likened to concentration camps.
Aurora has been singled out by Trump and his anti-immigration allies since last year, when a series of false and exaggerated allegations that a Venezuelan gang had “invaded and conquered” the city spread on social media. During a Colorado campaign stop in October, Trump promised to launch an effort to round up and deport undocumented immigrants that he said would be called “Operation Aurora.”
Citing three unnamed administration sources, NBC News reported Tuesday that Aurora would be the target of “large-scale immigration arrests” beginning Thursday.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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