Aspen: Glenwood Springs panel votes 5-1 to revoke ICE permit
aspen’s ICE facility at 100 Midland Ave. came under a 5-1 revocation vote Tuesday after the Glenwood Springs Planning and Zoning Commission found repeated violations of the permit’s 12-hour holding limit. Commissioner Amy Connerton moved to revoke the special use permit, and city staff had recommended keeping it in place with corrective measures.
Connerton cited 11 documented cases in which people were held longer than the permit allowed. The commission’s vote puts the local permit on a path to revocation, but City Attorney Karl Hanlon told the panel the city has almost no way to force a shutdown without going to court.
Karl Hanlon on enforcement limits
Hanlon told commissioners, “What I need to do is to frame up and set expectations for you and for the public” before they heard from residents or began deliberating. He also said, “I don’t want anybody’s expectations to be that this facility will cease to operate tomorrow, depending on what you do tonight, or that we have a judicial remedy to force that to occur.”
He said the city’s ability to enforce a local land-use decision against the federal government is sharply limited. Hanlon added during the meeting, “For me, as the attorney for the city of Glenwood Springs, I have almost no options to enforce that outcome, and I just don’t want there to be any confusion about that,” and later said the facility would continue to operate until a judicial decision enforced the local land-use code.
Five votes for revocation
Connerton, John Houghton, Connie Geiman, Chair Peter Waller and alternate Kyle Jones voted in favor. Patrick Corcoran voted against. Vice Chair Joy White was absent, and Jones served in her place.
No representatives from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security or the U.S. General Services Administration attended the meeting. The local permit revocation becomes final if the decision is not appealed within seven days of the notice being issued.
City Council and federal court
Hanlon said federal agencies are encouraged to cooperate with local governments on zoning and building code issues, but their compliance is largely voluntary. If ICE or the General Services Administration does not comply, Glenwood Springs City Council would have to decide whether to pursue judicial enforcement.
He said, “As a city, and primarily as a city council, they’re going to have to decide if they want to instruct me to attempt to take an enforcement action against ICE in court to shut them down,” and added, “My struggle is that I think the likelihood of success on that is going to be very low because of the protections that are afforded the federal government.”
The vote gives the city a formal local decision, but the next step runs through legal enforcement rather than immediate closure. For affected readers at the Midland Avenue site, the practical question now is whether the city council will direct a court fight after the seven-day appeal window closes.
