{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.hickenlooper.senate.gov/press_releases/icymi-hickenlooper-visits-mountain-communities-talks-immigration-drought-wildfire-economy-healthcare-and-more/", "ICYMI: Hickenlooper Visits Mountain Communities, Talks Immigration, Drought, Wildfire, Economy, Healthcare, and More", "2026-08-21", "2026", "2026-08", "Democrat", "Senate", "CO", "John W. Hickenlooper", "H000273", "www.hickenlooper.senate.gov", "hickenlooper", "https://www.hickenlooper.senate.gov/press/page/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON \u2013 In case you missed it, Senator John Hickenlooper hit the road this week, conducting an oversight visit at the Aurora ICE Detention Facility before heading into the mountains to visit Golden, Blackhawk, Georgetown, Frisco, Beaver Creek, Edwards, and Eagle.\n\nOn Monday, Hickenlooper conducted another oversight visit to ICE and GEO\u2019s Aurora Detention Facility, where there are reports of a dozen cases of the highly-contagious disease, Tuberculosis. During the visit, he demanded more cooperation from GEO with local and state public health officials.\n\nWatch Senator Hickenlooper discuss his visit and the cost of Trump\u2019s immigration agenda\n\nOn Tuesday morning, he visited the Jefferson County Emergency Operations Headquarters in Golden. He toured the command center, which he secured millions in federal funding to help build, and hosted a discussion with emergency, wildfire, and U.S. Forest Service officials about wildfire mitigation. The group also discussed how innovative Colorado emergency service officials are in the face of a historic drought and devastating wildfire season as well as what resources they need moving forward.\n\nThe Senator then travelled to Blackhawk\u2019s Timberline Fire Station #3 to tour the newly expanded and renovated station, which Hickenlooper helped secure $900,000 for through Congressionally Directed Spending (CDS).\n\nIn a roundtable discussion with firefighters, local elected officials, and residents, he received an update on economic development challenges and successes in Clear Creek and Gilpin Counties. Hickenlooper then attended a Clear Creek and Gilpin Joint Board of County Commissioners meeting in Georgetown. The group discussed cuts to human services and other funding priorities for the two mountain counties.\n\nTuesday afternoon, Hickenlooper visited with Mountain Dreamers in Frisco to talk about the impacts of Trump\u2019s cruel immigration agenda on our communities. He heard stories about the terror families and businesses felt during ICE raids and about the death of a Summit County resident in ICE detention. Hickenlooper heard about the impact on small businesses; employees taken away, employees scared to come to work, businesses shuttering out of fear.\n\nOn Wednesday, Hickenlooper began the day sitting down with outdoor recreation leaders and local elected officials in Beaver Creek to talk about how climate change is driving drought and impacting the outdoor recreation economy in Colorado. Attendees detailed the downturn outdoor recreation in Colorado experienced this past year due to record-low snowpack, wildfires, and persistent drought.\n\nHickenlooper then went to Edwards to tour Vail Health\u2019s Edwards Community Health Campus and Precourt Healing Center, which received $2.8 million in CDS funding that Hickenlooper helped secure. After the tour, he sat down with Vail Health and regional healthcare leaders to discuss healthcare access. They discussed how the community is reeling in the face of the more than a trillion dollar cuts to our healthcare system from MAGA\u2019s One Big Ugly Betrayal Act.\n\nIn Eagle, Hickenlooper sat down with Latino small business leaders from across Colorado to talk about the cost-of-living emergency caused by Trump\u2019s reckless tariffs, illegal war with Iran, and healthcare cuts. Members of the roundtable highlighted workforce shortages as well as the disruption and fear caused by Trump\u2019s immigration agenda.\n\nHickenlooper came back down to Denver Thursday to tour the new United Flight Training Center in Denver, followed by a look at the expanded 700,000-square-foot campus. As governor, Hickenlooper ushered in United\u2019s $40 million investment in Colorado, with Denver serving as one of the airline\u2019s major hubs for travel and pilot training.\n\nCheck out what they\u2019re saying:\n\nCPR: Public health investigation into tuberculosis at Aurora detention center at standstill as deadline looms\n\n\u2026Sen. John Hickenlooper, who visited the facility Monday morning, said he got no new information from anyone.\n\n\u201cWe got to spend about 40 minutes talking to ICE officials and GEO employees, and really the answers they gave were: they can\u2019t give us any information on the advice of counsel,\u201d Hickenlooper said. \u201cThey\u2019ve been discouraged both by lawyers for the CDC, which is inexplicable, but also by the GEO lawyers,\u201d he told reporters, after a roughly hour and a half tour.\n\n\u2026\u201cThey won\u2019t tell us how many people have been released in the community, where the follow-up testing, how that\u2019s being organized. You cannot do an investigation like this in a vacuum,\u201d Hickenlooper said.\n\nDenver Post: Operators of Aurora immigration detention center ignore state health order, setting stage for potential court battle\n\n\u2026U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper visited the Aurora facility Monday and told reporters that Geo staff declined to discuss the tuberculosis situation on advice of their lawyers. He said they also would not indicate whether they intended to comply with the state health order.\n\n\u201cYou cannot do an investigation like this in a vacuum,\u201d Hickenlooper said from the sidewalk outside of the facility. \u201c\u2026I\u2019m shocked. I\u2019ve never in my life seen a time where a direct order from the public health authority or a direct order from the state office of public health is ignored.\u201d\n\nColorado Sun: Hickenlooper denied answers on tuberculosis during visit to Aurora immigrant detention center\n\n\u2026U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper on Monday walked into the immigrant detention facility in Aurora with questions about the possible spread of tuberculosis within the facility. He walked out without answers.\n\nHickenlooper said whenever he asked a tuberculosis-related question \u2014 Who had been tested? What type of investigation had been conducted? Where are people who were exposed to the disease located now? \u2014 he was stonewalled.\n\n\u201cThe answers they gave were, \u2018We\u2019re not going to release any information on the advice of counsel,\u2019\u201d Hickenlooper said, standing outside the facility following his visit.\n\n\u2026\u201cI\u2019ve never in my life seen a time where a direct order from the county public health authority or a direct order from the state office of public health is ignored,\u201d Hickenlooper said. \u201cThat they say, \u2018No, we\u2019re not required to do that and the (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) is going to be OK with that.\u2019\u201d\n\nClear Creek Courant: Hickenlooper meets with Gilpin, Clear Creek county leaders\n\nSen. John Hickenlooper, D-Colo. arrived at the Timberline Fire Station #3 in Gilpin County with a small entourage of staff to listen and answer questions and hear concerns from city and county officials.\n\n\u2026Idaho Springs Mayor Chuck Harmon told the Courant he couldn\u2019t agree more, and the bipartisan support Hickenlooper has commanded on the federal level is commendable because, \u201cFire is blind.\u201d\n\n\u201cHe (Hickenlooper) knows wildfire doesn\u2019t care what your political stripe is,\u201d Harmon said.\n\n\u201cYou\u2019re just as likely to be a victim of a fire whether you\u2019re a republican or a democrat,\u201d Harmon continued.\n\n\u2026A Path Forward\n\nAccording to Congressional reports, senators Hickenlooper (D-CO) and John Curtis (R-UT), Tim Sheehy (R-MT), and Alex Padilla (D-CA) introduced the Fix Our Forests Act.\n\nThe bipartisan legislation, according to congressional reports, is intended to address and effect \u201cCatastrophic wildfires, restore forest ecosystems, and make federal forest management more efficient and responsive.\u201d\n\nLISTEN:\n\nCPR (Denver, CO): ICE Aurora Detention Facility Oversight Visit\n\nKOA (Denver, CO): Jefferson County Emergency Operations Visit\n\nKRDO (Colorado Springs, CO): Jefferson County Emergency Operations Visit\n\nWATCH:\n\nNBC (Colorado Springs, CO): United FTC Visit\n\nFOX (Denver, CO): United FTC Visit\n\nFOX (Colorado Springs, CO): ICE Aurora Detention Facility Oversight Visit\n\n###", 1, "2026-08-22T05:24:59Z", "2026-08-22T05:26:16Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.hickenlooper.senate.gov/press_releases/icymi-hickenlooper-visits-mountain-communities-talks-immigration-drought-wildfire-economy-healthcare-and-more/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.9810661431401968, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}