The Denver Post: In the past two weeks, what little confidence we had in the Geo Group’s ability to manage federal detention centers has been shaken. The private company, headquartered in Florida, has refused to cooperate with state and county health officials concerned about the possibility of a tuberculosis outbreak in the group’s Aurora facility. Police accused a Geo Group employee — enraged by threats and criticism— of deliberately shooting a protester in the foot just outside the Aurora detention center. And an immigrant rights group has alleged the company is denying people inside the facility communication with their families and others by screening mail, denying delivery and delaying correspondence.

All of this comes as the U.S. Department of Homeland Security — under the direction of President Donald Trump — has scaled up a mass deportation effort that doesn’t only target criminals anymore and has begun a public dragnet for anyone with questionable legal status. The administration is expecting to detain so many people that DHS signed a $529 million contract with Geo Group to open a second Colorado facility to lock up 1,188 people in Hudson. The Aurora facility already holds 1,530 people.

We are skeptical, however, that meaningful oversight will come from a federal department that is in complete disarray, having burned through Kristi Noem in 18 months. Now the agency is led by Markwayne Mullin, a man who is refusing to publicly address the fact that under his watch immigration enforcement officers have shot and killed two unarmed people they were trying to detain during roadside stops in separate states.

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