For decades, many Aurora residents were unaware that there was a for-profit U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center in their backyard. But as immigration became a hot-button issue, the center was thrust into the spotlight.

On Friday, that spotlight will get a bit brighter with the premiere of a new documentary about the facility at at 3130 Oakland St. 

Denver resident and filmmaker Jeremy Flood says he was inspired to make his documentary “The Facility” after the ACLU of Colorado released a report on the conditions and treatment of detainees.

The detention center is owned by the GEO Group, a Florida-based real estate investment group that invests in private prisons and mental health facilities throughout North America, Australia, South Africa and the United Kingdom, according to their website. 

Friday night’s premiere is being presented by the ACLU of Colorado, in partnership with the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition (CIRC) and the Colorado Hispanic Bar Association (CHBA). It will be on Zoom at 7 p.m. The ACLU asks that viewers RSVP: https://aclu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_nUbTy8-VQpif8nMzqtUzQw

“This documentary chronicles the lived experiences of people who have been inside the facility, but also the family members who are still fighting for their loved ones,” Flood said.

“The most shocking thing to me was just a severe lack of care both medical and general care for humanity towards the people being detained inside the facility. It’s heartbreaking.”

Flood’s film shares the stories of Raul Medina Perez, Keinada Andereas and Kamyar Samimi and their experiences inside the GEO facility. 

“They were routinely not given care, routinely abused,” Flood said. “(Guards) would bark at them …  but the worst part is most of the people detained are not criminals and are just normal people like you or me.” 

Andreas, who has been in the United States since she was 18 months old, was apprehended by ICE while on the way to her college orientation with her father. She had never committed a crime. 

“I think its one things to tell stories in a report, but to see and hear from people who have been on the inside, and see their families in pain, it’s not just an opportunity for us, but an honor to share these stories so hopefully another family doesn’t have to experience this pain,” said Vanessa Michel, the director of communications for ACLU of Colorado. 

Flood said many of the detainees within the facility are asylum seekers that have no been formally arrested or convicted of a crime. 

Michel says she hopes the film will encourage residents to speak up.

“The thing that most people don’t know is that this is happening in their backyard. The cruelty, the neglect, the abuse, is happening right there, so close, and people don’t truly know what’s going on inside,” she said. 

Flood says the first-hand accounts from those who have experienced conditions he calls “no different than concentration camps” will shed light on what the facility has done.

“It’s devouring communities, it’s tearing families apart and harming so many people. The justifications for its existent are just so incoherent and we all have collective responsibility in the way this system is organized,” Flood said. 

“I would just ask people to acknowledge that this is happening and work to change it.”