The city of Glenwood Springs has sued a Florida-based landlord that owns part of the Midland Center where U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operates an office and short-term holding facility. The lawsuit alleges that the landlord is breaking municipal zoning rules by continuing to let ICE detain people there, months after the city revoked the facility’s special-use permit.
The city filed its complaint against the landlord, JG Housing Solutions, on Sept. 25 in Garfield County District Court, following the Glenwood Springs City Council’s decision on Aug. 6 to pursue legal action.
Glenwood Springs’ complaint asks the court to rule that JG Housing Solutions “not lease a property in violation of the City’s Code” and to permanently bar the company from leasing the space at 100 Midland Ave. for detentions. The suit further states that the city and the public “will suffer irreparable harm if the violation continues, by not protecting their health, safety and welfare.”
The city requested that it “recover a fine of $1,000 a day from the first violation of the Code” until the violations cease; or alternatively, a $1,000 fine “for each specific violation of the Code.” The city also asks the landlord to cover “reasonable costs” of the lawsuit.
In an effort to stop ICE’s landlord from continuing to detain people during court proceedings, the complaint also lays out a case for a preliminary injunction to halt all detentions at the site. City officials confirmed they will consider filing a separate motion for a preliminary injunction.
In a written statement on Sept. 28, the city said it has followed standard practices and taken the same steps it would with any other entity to enforce its land use code. City officials declined further comment, citing the pending litigation.
JG Housing Solutions is registered in Colorado as a limited liability company with a principal office in Florida. Property tax records and state business filings link the LLC to Jeff Gillespie, who did not respond to a request for comment.
The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) manages the commercial lease for ICE’s facility in Glenwood Springs and oversaw the original city permit application. The GSA pays $212,304 in annual rent to JG Housing Solutions for the commercial space, according to its August lease inventory.
In an email on Sept. 30, a GSA spokesperson said that the agency “does not comment on active litigation.” Aspen Public Radio and Aspen Journalism also reached out to ICE and its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, for comment on the lawsuit. Neither responded in time for publication.
The lawsuit follows months of residents urging the city to act and a 6-1 city council vote on Aug. 6 directing City Attorney Karl Hanlon and his firm — Karp Neu Hanlon — to take the matter to state court. Hanlon also provides legal counsel to Aspen Public Radio.
During a public comment period before the council’s vote in August, some described the impact the ICE facility has had on their immigrant neighbors who were arrested or had a family member detained there. Others argued that failing to enforce the code against one landlord would weaken the city’s ability to enforce it against others.
Ultimately, council members framed their decision as a land use issue, not immigration policy, and several said the city should not set a precedent of ignoring its own code. The packed chambers broke into applause when the motion passed.
Detentions without a permit
The city first approved a special-use permit for the facility at the Midland Center in 2003, which allowed ICE to temporarily hold people for no more than 12 hours at a time before transferring them to a larger detention center, such as the one in Aurora operated by the GEO Group.
ICE’s small holding facilities are temporary processing spaces that are not built to hold people overnight. They’ve drawn recent criticism across the country because of limited oversight and longer detention times.
Scrutiny of Glenwood Springs’ facility grew earlier this year, and eventually, complaints from residents, public records requests, and news reports prompted the city to take a closer look. In early March, the city reviewed federal data from the Deportation Data Project at the UC Berkeley and UCLA law schools showing that the 12-hour limit had been met or exceeded 10 times in May and August 2025.
Separately, an Aspen Journalism analysis of about 15 years of ICE enforcement data found at least 17 detentions longer than 12 hours between Oct. 1, 2011, and Aug. 6 of this year out of roughly 1,200 total detentions. About half of those detentions lasting more than 12 hours occurred after the second Trump administration expanded immigration enforcement, with the latest recorded on March 5.
In response to the 12-hour detention violations, the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission voted 5-1 in a public hearing on April 28 to revoke the special-use permit. According to the city, a recording of the hearing shows a representative for JG Housing Solutions, identified as Mr. Gillespie, attended the hearing online. However, neither the landlord, the GSA nor ICE appealed the decision.
Since the city adopted a new land-use code in 2018 that no longer allows for detention facilities, the city’s complaint says its decision to revoke the permit is final and the landlord, “just like every other landlord in the city, may not use, or lease its property for detentions.”
But city officials said they first received evidence on July 24 that ICE was still detaining people at the facility when the local fire department responded to an emergency medical call there. The city also found recent ICE data released by the Deportation Data Project, confirming the agency was holding detainees at the facility after April 28.
Aspen Journalism’s own analysis of the same data found that between April 29 and Aug. 6, ICE detained 27 people at the facility without a permit. The longest detention time in that period was eight hours and 42 minutes.
These findings, along with a directive from city council on Aug. 6, prompted the city to file its complaint. The lawsuit’s central claim is that JG Housing Solutions allowed ICE to keep detaining people at its temporary holding facility in Glenwood Springs after the city revoked its decades-old permit in April.
Federal officials have not directly addressed most of the alleged violations, including the continued use of the detention facility after the permit was revoked and the city’s zoning claims. However, in an email to Aspen Public Radio and Aspen Journalism on Aug. 7, a DHS spokesperson denied that ICE holds people at the site for more than 12 hours, describing it as a processing facility, not a detention center.
In March, an ICE spokesperson called the Deportation Data Project’s third-party data “unverified.” The project says it gets its data directly from government records requests, litigation and government disclosures.
Lawsuit moves forward
During the Aug. 6 city council meeting, Hanlon, the city attorney, advised the Glenwood Springs City Council that suing the facility’s landlord in state court was its best chance of success, rather than suing ICE and the GSA in federal court.
Hanlon also said the landlord could argue that the U.S. Constitution’s supremacy clause bars local zoning enforcement from interfering with the federal government’s power to enforce immigration law.
Anticipating that argument, the complaint lists alternative ICE holding facilities in Colorado, including one in Grand Junction.
“ICE’s enforcement work would be unaffected by prohibiting detentions at the Leasehold,” the complaint states. ICE could still enforce immigration laws in the city, the complaint argues, and keep using the Midland Center for administrative work, which local zoning allows.
The city also alleges that standard GSA leases usually require the property owner and the government to comply with all local and state laws, as well as federal laws.
The city’s complaint relies on a state law that lets Colorado municipalities seek injunctions against properties that repeatedly violate their regulations. It calls the ongoing detentions a “nuisance” that will continue unless a court forces the landlord to stop and claims that “enforcement of lawful land use regulations protects the health, safety, and welfare of the public.”
During the Aug. 6 meeting, Hanlon estimated the case could take 18 to 24 months to resolve. If the court grants the city a preliminary injunction, it would bar JG Housing Solutions from leasing the space for detentions while the lawsuit proceeds.
The landlord will have 21 days to respond once the lawsuit is served.
This story was produced through a social justice reporting collaboration between Aspen Journalism and Aspen Public Radio.
