Housing Not Detention!: Housing Instability & Immigration Enforcement | Housekeys Action Denver Network

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Across the United States, communities are being torn apart by the collision of two destructive systems: aggressive immigration enforcement and the deepening housing crisis. While these issues are often treated separately, they are tightly intertwined. The expansion of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), bolstered by bloated budgets and increasingly harsh policies, is creating a pipeline from poverty to detention – particularly for undocumented individuals and families already struggling with housing insecurity. The connection is not abstract; it plays out on the streets, in overcrowded shelters, and in the lives of those hiding in plain sight.

The current administration’s approach to immigration is marked by unprecedented financial investment in ICE. The agency now operates with a budget larger than the entire federal prison system—more than nine federal law enforcement agencies combined. This funding fuels aggressive tactics that do not distinguish between undocumented migrants and U.S. citizens, disproportionately targeting people of color and those simply existing in public space without documentation on hand.

This intensified surveillance and enforcement echoes the legacy of broken windows policing, a strategy that criminalizes minor infractions under the theory that visible disorder encourages more serious crime. Popularized in the 1990s, this theory was applied most harshly in neighborhoods of color, where minor behaviors like sitting on stoops, asking for help, or sleeping in public were policed as signs of deviance. As early as 1982, critics noted how “strangers” – often code for the houseless, Black and Brown people, or those perceived as outsiders – were routinely harassed or arrested for behavior tied to poverty or houselessness.

Today, this logic persists under a different name. Anti-loitering, anti-panhandling, and “urban camping” bans disproportionately impact houseless people, especially migrants, who are regularly criminalized for their very existence. For undocumented individuals, the stakes are even higher. Simply failing to present identification – often lost in sweeps or unavailable due to immigration status – can lead to detention and deportation. ICE now functions as an extension of broken windows policing, using race, language, and public presence as justification for detention without cause.

Meanwhile, systemic barriers prevent undocumented people from accessing housing. They are ineligible for federal rental assistance programs and often cannot establish credit or rental histories. Even those who find employment are typically paid in cash, making income verification nearly impossible. Without stable housing options, many end up on the streets or in precarious, overcrowded living situations that risk eviction. In other instances, slumlords take advantage of this population by reducing housing application barriers while charging inflated rents for sub-livable conditions, forcing tenants to accept unhealthy and unsafe housing to have any housing at all. We saw this play out with the CBZ buildings in Aurora, where slumlord Zev Baumgartner refused to take responsibility for the lack of management and maintenance of his buildings and instead blamed the tenants who were migrant families, ultimately resulting in increased policing and the detention of many young men and women, some of whom are still in horribly inhumane places such as CECOT in El Salvador or GTMO, the Guantanamo Bay detention center.

The poverty-to-detention pipeline becomes even more visible when families are separated. Men, often primary earners, are detained, leaving mothers with young children unable to maintain housing. This cascade of instability pushes families into overwhelmed shelter systems or into unsafe housing arrangements. Some are forced to live doubled or tripled up with others, risking lease violations. Others end up entirely unsheltered: hidden in alleys, underpasses, or remote areas to avoid ICE sweeps and police harassment.

Private detention centers, such as the GEO facility in Aurora, profit from this chaos. These for-profit centers detain individuals who could otherwise attend immigration proceedings from home. Detained people include legal permanent residents, visa holders, or applicants for protected status who have every right to continue their cases outside of detention. Instead, they are incarcerated and separated from their families, destabilizing entire households. Though GEO in Aurora doesn’t publicly report how much it makes at its site, GEO annually earns over $2.4 billion across all sites in the U.S., and with 1,532 beds and industry norms of ~$75-80 per detainee per day, Aurora could theoretically generate around $42 million per year.

The result is a crisis of compounding vulnerabilities: poverty criminalized, immigration weaponized, and housing rendered unattainable. The horribly damaging myth that migrants are inherently criminal feeds policies that lead directly to increased houselessness and fractured communities. The housing crisis is not just a matter of economics. It is a matter of policy choices that prioritize detention over dignity – punishment over protection.

Conclusion: Keeping Families Together is Keeping Communities Stable

If we are to truly address housing insecurity and end the human rights violations unfolding in our communities, we must recognize and dismantle the intersection of immigration enforcement and poverty criminalization. Keeping families together in affordable housing – not apart in detention centers – benefits everyone. It reduces strain on overcrowded shelters, keeps children in school, and fosters long-term stability for families who contribute to the fabric of our society. The path forward requires rejecting fear-driven policies and embracing solutions that treat housing and migration as human rights, not liabilities.

HAND is currently connected with around 25 individuals in detention and/or their families, all with dynamic histories. Names have been changed.

• Alejandra is currently houseless with 3 daughters (the youngest only 4 years old) after her husband Jose was sent to Guantanamo Bay detention center four months ago, and then transferred to CECOT in El Salvador. They have since had no communication with Jose and are unsure if he is still alive. She originally lived at the Edge of Lowry CBZ apartments and HAND helped rehouse them while they stayed busy working and going back and forth submitting various immigration documentation asked of them – yet following the legal immigration process seems to have landed them nowhere. Alejandra has this to say:
o In original Spanish: Primero mis hijas le afectó mucho en su estado emocional, lloraban, me preguntaban mucho por su papá y eso me afectaba mucho porque me tocó enfrentar las cosas sola con mis 3 hijas. He estado muy triste pero demuestro ser fuerte para ellas. Enserio, si está a sus manos ayudarme, porfavor ayúdenme
o English translation: First, my daughters were greatly affected emotionally. They cried, asked me a lot about their father, and that affected me a lot because I had to face things alone with my 3 daughters. I’ve been very sad, but I’ve proven to be strong for them. Seriously, if it’s in your hands, help me, please help me.

• Andrii is Ukrainian and, before being detained, had been traveling the globe, recording youtube videos of his travels and getting to know people and cultures of various backgrounds. He has stayed with monks in Asia and made many good friends along the way. He used to work for local City governments to help establish skateparks in their neighborhoods, being a big skateboarder himself. He’s afraid of being deported due to the war, but is also struggling with severe health conditions (including one developed directly due to his detainment) that he has been unable to get proper medical treatment for. One clinical note where he asked for more specialized treatment, or at least to be able to consult a specialist, was responded to with “please keep in mind you are in detention” – as though that was reason enough to refuse him proper medical treatment. Despite his personal struggles, he has been very supportive of other detainees and does what he can to encourage them. He has been detained for nearly a year and is desperate to get outside and feel the sun on his skin at a skatepark.

• Maria and Luis have been together for 9 years and are raising 3 young children together. Luis came here wanting to one day open a restaurant to share their cuisine with us, a mix of Venezuelan and Italian classics. He is detained at GEO and mourns having missed his daughter’s first birthday and first steps. The middle child shares his same name and has become so depressed that he struggles eating, and goes to bed early. His oldest son, at just 13 years old with a birth deformity that gave him the body of a 9 year old, has assumed the role of “man of the house” and is highly attentive to his mom and younger siblings. Maria has racked up rental debt due to not being able to afford rent between part time work and raising a one year old.

These are just three of the many stories of the folks we connect with who need our support. If your loved one is detained, connect with us to see how we can support. If you’d like to get involved in our direct work with detainees, please contact us at 701-484-2634 or info@housekeysactionnetwork.com

This is why HAND has launched our Housing Not Detention! Campaign to support those who the government says are “housed” in detention centers, who need to be released and back with their families and community. One part of this campaign is raising funds to provide rental assistance for family members of detainees, along with bond support when available, so that they can quickly return to their loved ones. Right now, we have several families in desperate need of this support. Please consider donating today to directly impact those who are suffering unimaginably due to the unjust incarceration of their loved ones: https://gofund.me/763a45e1