GEO Group employee charged after shooting protester at Colorado ICE facility

Brandon Booth, a 42‑year‑old employee of the GEO Group, was charged on Wednesday with first‑degree assault and attempted assault after he fired a personal handgun at two women demonstrating outside a GEO‑operated Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) processing center in Aurora, Colorado. One protester was hit in the foot. Booth fled the scene in his vehicle but was arrested shortly thereafter. GEO Group placed him on unpaid administrative leave and said it will fully cooperate with law enforcement.

The incident follows a series of recent shootings involving ICE agents, including fatal shootings in Houston, Texas, and Biddeford, Maine, earlier this month, and the January killings of two U.S. citizens during protests in Minneapolis. Critics have long highlighted safety and conditions concerns at ICE detention facilities managed by private contractors such as GEO Group.