ICE: Moving On Up?

Either federal ICE agents in southern Colorado are getting a new office, or they’ll be moving soon.

That’s according to a notice from the U.S. General Services Administration requesting over 9,000 square feet of rental space for ICE, which will include holding cells and a fortified “sally port” gate.The contractor solicitation, filed in July, requests space in the counties of Pueblo or Fremont, and will be ready for occupancy no later than June of 2008:

Rentable space must yield 9533 of BOMA usable square feet for use by tenant for personnel, furnishings, and equipment. This leased space should provide at least fourteen (14) parking spaces. Space must be capable of being fully accessible to the physically handicapped, must meet minimum seismic requirements, and must not lie within the 100-year flood plain and will be subject to any and all other building or construction rules, regulations, laws and/or ordinances on the local, county, state and federal levels as they may apply.

After build-out of leased space, this space will include unique features of a sally-port and holding ceils [sic]. The initial tenants will be US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Such space shall be ready for occupancy prior to June 18, 2008. The government is seeking a lease term of 10 years with 7 years firm. Space offered must be located within Pueblo County or Fremont County.

ICE already has an office in the city of Pueblo, along with locations in Denver, Grand Junction, Durango, Glenwood Springs, Alamosa, Brush, and Craig. 

With a 10-year lease, it’s clear that ICE has no intention of going anywhere. Is ICE planning to move agents, or to take a new office entirely?

Erin Rosa was born in Spain and raised in Colorado Springs. She is a freelance writer currently living in Denver. Rosa's work has been featured in a variety of news outlets including the Huffington Post, Democracy Now!, and the Rocky Mountain Chronicle, an alternative-weekly in Northern Colorado where she worked as a columnist covering the state legislature. Rosa has received awards from the Society of Professional Journalists for her reporting on lobbying and woman's health issues. She was also tapped with a rare honorable mention award by the Newspaper Guild-CWA's David S. Barr Award in 2008--only the second such honor conferred in its nine-year history--for her investigative series covering the federal government's Supermax prison in the state. Rosa covers the labor community, corrections, immigration and government transparency matters. She can be reached at erosa@www.coloradoindependent.com.

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