The private prison company that operates the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement center in Aurora has filed a lawsuit against Colorado to stop the enforcement of a new law requiring additional health and safety inspections of immigration detention facilities.

The lawsuit from Geo Group, filed Monday in Denver District Court, lists Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser as the plaintiff, along with Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment executive director Jill Hunsaker Ryan, the department’s environmental health and sustainability director Jeff Lawrence, and Adams County Health Department executive director Kelly Weidenbach.

Earlier this year, the Adams County Health Department conducted an on-site investigation into the facility following anonymous reports alleging widespread illness among detainees.

The department alleged Geo Group’s legal counsel delayed health officials’ efforts to interview facility staff despite multiple attempts to do so, according to a report from Denver7.

Geo Group is seeking an injunction to block implementation of House Bill 26-1276, which expanded the state health department’s authority to conduct more frequent health and safety inspections at immigration detention facilities in the state and impose fines or even revoke licenses if one refuses an inspection.

Geo Group’s Aurora site is the state’s only major immigration detention center, though several temporary holding facilities operate elsewhere in Colorado.

Sponsors of the Democratic bill claimed they have seen reports of inhospitable and at times dangerous conditions in immigration detention facilities.

“As state legislators, we have a responsibility to do everything we can to keep our communities safe from the violent and unconstitutional overreach of ICE,” said Sen. Iman Jodeh, an Aurora Democrat. “We hear all too often about death, sickness, overcrowding, and other unacceptable conditions in ICE detention facilities, but there is almost no transparency. This law is about increasing oversight, ensuring frequent inspections, and protecting health and safety.”

Republicans argued that the more than $200,000 outlined in the bill’s fiscal note over the next two years would be better spent elsewhere, such as the state’s strained health care system and deteriorating roads.

“I’m still struggling with the idea that while Colorado roads are deteriorating, our health care system is failing, students in K-12 are not performing at grade level, and our budget is out of control, we are spending time debating federal policy that I struggle to believe is acting in a manner that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle want me to believe it is,” Rep. Ryan Gonzalez, R-Greeley, told bill sponsors during a debate earlier this year.

The debate is occurring amid the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign, which Democrats in Colorado have criticized. Colorado has, by law, limited cooperation between federal immigration agents and local authorities. 

In particular, Colorado expressly prohibits all state agencies and political subdivisions from sharing or inquiring into individuals’ personal identifying information for the purposes of enforcing immigration laws, imposing a civil fine of $50,000 for each violation. 

Critics have argued that Colorado’s “sanctuary” policies are handcuffing both local and federal agents’ ability to fight crime and deport foreign nationals unlawfully staying in America. Their supporters have argued they are needed to keep the federal government from “commandeering limited state public safety capacity” for their own purposes and to preserve the trust between the police and communities they serve. 

Last week, New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport filed a lawsuit against Geo Group for allegedly denying the state’s Department of Health full access to one of its immigration detention facilities.

In the Colorado lawsuit, Geo Group requested that the court evaluate the constitutionality of House Bill 1276, arguing that its provisions are preempted by federal law and “impermissibly attempt to directly regulate and control federal immigration operations of the United States.”

The lawsuit argued that Colorado is asserting the power to allow state and local officials to directly regulate and to levy civil penalties against federal facilities used to detain noncitizens awaiting removal. By doing so, the complaint said, the state is claiming regulatory authority in an area reserved exclusively for the federal government, which it contends is unconstitutional.

Geo Group also stated that HB 1276 would require it to implement “burdensome operational changes” and to breach its contract with ICE, likely resulting in termination.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, Weiser said his office is committed to defending state law.

“There are disturbing reports about unhealthy living conditions at for-profit detention camps like the GEO facility in Aurora,” he said. “Meeting basic health and safety requirements and being transparent about facility conditions are necessary for the humane treatment of immigrants who are going through civil immigration proceedings.”

The Colorado Department of Health and Environment said it does not comment on pending litigation, and the Adams County Health Department did not respond to a request for comment.