The summer of 2025 was busy for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office on State Avenue in Alamosa. The brick building that nobody in Alamosa knew was being used as an ICE holding facility saw 37 individuals between June and August in its “Alamosa Holdroom,” according to data compiled by The Deportation Data Project.
And while the summer months were particularly busy, it was in November of 2024 that the building first held an ICE detainee, with a total of 58 detainees held in the Alamosa Holdroom since then, according to the records. The breakdown is 55 males and three females who have been held at the facility over the past 16 months. Of those, 22 had criminal arrest warrants and two arrestees were under 18.
“I thought it was a defunct thing,” Alamosa County Sheriff Robert Jackson told Alamosa Citizen. “I’m surprised to hear that.”
Alamosa City Manager Heather Sanchez said the city recently became aware that ICE was using the building at 1921 State Avenue as a holding area for arrestees. She said the city is researching the issue, including federal pre-emption and grandfathering considerations.
“It is our understanding that the property is privately owned and that the use of the holding cells dates back to the early 2000s. We are waiting on that research to determine the next steps,” Sanchez said.
Ownership of the property is listed to Hegerl Hans-Joerg, with the property in care of Sylvia Garcia of La Jara, according to Alamosa County assessor’s records. Neither could be reached for comment.
The existence of the ICE holding room on State Avenue was first reported in 2019 as part of a series on ICE facilities by Elise Hendrick. It came to light again in this recent report by Colorado Times Recorder.
Alamosa Citizen reviewed data from 2023 through October 2025 to confirm ICE’s Alamosa Holdroom figures.
The Deportation Data Project is based on records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act and is spearheaded by UCLA professor Graeme Blair; David Hausman, an assistant professor of law at UC-Berkeley; and attorney Amber Qureshi, who leads the Freedom of Information Act efforts. It gathers ICE datasets to create transparency on the operations of the federal agency.
“We promptly post data that we receive from ICE, but ICE has not agreed to release these datasets on any schedule, so it is impossible to predict when, or at what intervals, we will receive updates. We are actively seeking updates,” the data project team said.
ICE uses the term holdroom for its smallest detention facilities. According to Hendrick’s reporting, small holdrooms can hold up to 14 detainees, and large rooms up to 49.
There were five ICE detainees held on May 15, all males, and then on Aug. 19 five males and 1 female were held in the holding room on Aug. 19, according to the records. One of the detainees on Aug. 19 was under 18.
Those two dates were the highest for the number of detainees held at once inside the facility. But throughout June, July, August, September and October of 2025, the Alamosa Holdroom saw activity as the ICE crackdown picked up steam across the country.
Alamosa Sheriff Jackson said he was unaware ICE could hold people for any length of time at the State Avenue facility. He recalls ICE using the facility to bus out arrestees but not to keep them in custody.
“It’s just a small little place,” Jackson said.
On the surface, the ICE facility appears to be inconsistent with city zoning codes, Sanchez said. Whether Alamosa has any say on how ICE operates on State Avenue is a separate question altogether.