People detained in the Aurora immigration detention center need between $80 and $100 each week to contact family members and buy enough commissary items to supplement the facility’s food offerings, according to a new report from a coalition of local advocacy organizations.

People detained in the facility, which is privately run by The GEO Group on behalf of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, describe meals as overly processed, extremely low-calorie and lacking in nutrition. That forces reliance on pricey commissary items.

“Oftentimes we see people who are detained each purchasing an item and then combining the items to make a meal, or to make several meals and sharing with folks who don’t have enough,” said Jennifer Piper, the program director for the Colorado chapter of the American Friends Service Committee. “But they can’t share enough to really sustain the caloric and nutritional intake of people who don’t have someone on the outside.”

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AFSC was one of four organizations that released a report Monday detailing alleged conditions inside the Aurora facility, where over 1,000 immigrants are typically detained as their cases get processed by ICE. The report draws on 31 firsthand accounts from complaint forms to AFSC and its partner organizations and direct interviews between September 2025 and February. The report was produced in partnership with Housekeys Action Network Denver, Casa de Paz and Aurora Unidos.

The groups are part of the Shut Down GEO campaign and want the Department of Homeland Security to not renew its contract with The GEO Group for the site.

In a statement, GEO Group spokesperson Christopher Ferreira wrote that the company’s facilities are monitored by DHS and ICE to ensure compliance with standards and contract requirements.

“GEO strongly disagrees with these allegations, which we believe are instigated by politically motivated outside groups as part of a campaign to abolish ICE and end federal immigration detention by attacking the federal government’s immigration facility contractors,” he wrote.

“The support services GEO provides include around-the-clock access to medical care, in-person and virtual legal and family visitation, general and legal library access, translation services, dietician-approved meals, religious and specialty diets, recreational amenities, and opportunities to practice their religious beliefs.”

The Aurora facility is the only ICE detention center in Colorado, though others are planned.

Regularly hungry

One person reported a lunch that included small scoops of beans and corn, a few pieces of lettuce, half of a slice of bread and “a baby’s spoon sized serving of something unidentifiable without color.” Another alleged they hadn’t had any fresh fruit or vegetables in eight months, and 22 percent of respondents said they felt food insecure and regularly hungry.

This creates a dependency on commissary items, Piper said, which include a pack of ramen noodles for over $3, a box of instant rice for $13 and a can of chicken breast for over $17. The GEO Group runs a voluntary work program through which people can earn $1 per day doing laundry, cleaning, food preparation and other labor, leading advocates to say that outside financial help is essentially required to purchase commissary items at a reasonable pace. The work program is the subject of a lawsuit.

“The GEO group uses hunger as a leverage to participate in their voluntary labor program,” Piper said.

U.S. Representative Jason Crow, an Aurora Democrat, and his staff regularly visit and request information about the facility. He is a plaintiff in a case against a Homeland Security policy restricting unannounced visits by members of Congress. Records published on his congressional website show a lunch menu at the Aurora facility on Dec. 4 that includes fajita meat, grilled onions and peppers, beans, rice, tortillas, salad and cake.

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“Our report is an effort to expand upon the work of Representative Crow’s office through direct documentation of abuses and inhumane conditions from people trapped inside the facility,” the Monday report says.

The most commonly mentioned issues in the report are medical concerns, including 38 mentions of new diagnoses during detention, 17 mentions of inadequate treatment for existing conditions, and 13 mentions of prescription medication denial.

“Folks were being treated very minimally for more serious conditions — things like chest pain, body pain, uncontrollable vomiting, headaches,” said V Reeves with HAND. “They are not able to receive further treatment, and this results in people suffering and having conditions that are not detected and deteriorate quickly.”

In one instance, a respondent said another man got some kind of pill from the nurse but fell down and vomited an hour later. After guards took him to the hospital, he found out he had kidney stones.

There were also 82 mentions of living condition issues, such as extreme temperatures. One person reported cold air constantly blowing, lights left on overnight and a loud television playing all day.

“He doesn’t sleep very well, usually stays up until around 3am reading the Bible until his body just gives in,” the report reads.

The records from Crow’s office show temperatures in the facility averaging in the mid-70s on an early December day.