By Tori Mason
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AURORA, Colorado (KCNC) — A 78-year-old Ugandan priest, who spent more than a year in immigration detention, was released from an Aurora facility Tuesday, but he was unable to walk out on his own.
CBS Colorado cameras captured two fellow detainees carrying Edward Nalwamba from the GEO-operated ICE detention facility to his ride after staff reportedly refused to allow him to use a wheelchair beyond the facility’s gate.
Nalwamba, who has lived in Colorado for more than two decades, was released after a federal judge granted his petition challenging his continued detention and ordered immigration officials to free him by Tuesday.
His release comes after 13 months in ICE custody, during which his attorney says his health deteriorated dramatically.
“I was walking. I was exercising. I was playing ping pong,” Nalwamba said shortly after his release, describing his physical condition before he was detained in September 2025.
Now, he says he cannot walk without assistance. Nalwamba told CBS Colorado that staff initially brought him toward the facility’s exit in a wheelchair, but would not allow him to take it the rest of the way to his transportation.
“They get me outside and say we can’t go beyond this,” Nalwamba explained. “And I’m asking, ‘Can’t the car come here?’ They say, ‘No.’ I say, ‘So how am I going to get the car?'”
Nalwamba said two other detainees stepped in and offered to carry him. He knew one of the men from his housing unit but said he did not know the other.
“Those friends offered to carry me, and, I mean, I’m so grateful to them,” he said.
The circumstances of his release have drawn criticism from Colorado U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper.
In a social media post Tuesday, Hickenlooper said members of his staff visited the detention center earlier in the day and specifically requested that GEO staff allow Nalwamba to call his caretakers before his release and provide a wheelchair to take him to his ride home.
The senator said GEO staff assured his office that both requests would be honored.
“They failed to deliver on either,” Hickenlooper wrote. “No phone call. No wheelchair. No human decency.”
Hickenlooper called the incident an act of cruelty and pledged to continue holding those responsible accountable.
CBS Colorado has reached out to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security seeking an explanation for the wheelchair restrictions, the circumstances surrounding Nalwamba’s release and allegations concerning his medical treatment.
DHS responded to CBS Colorado with this statement, “On September 18, 2025, ICE arrested Edward Nkugwa Kironde Nalwamba, an illegal alien from Uganda, in Lakewood, Colorado. Nalwamba legally entered the country on January 1, 2002, but chose to overstay his welcome in violation of our nation’s laws. He was granted voluntary departure by an immigration judge on March 2, 2007, and still refused to depart. On June 2, 2009, the Board Immigration Appeals dismissed his appeal and on April 8, 2010, following a dismissal of his appeal in the 10th Circuit, he was issued a final order of removal. On October 20, ICE was forced to release Nalwamba after an activist judge ordered his release. He remains in the country illegally.”
Nalwamba’s attorney, Joy Athanasiou, says her client entered into ICE custody in good health but has experienced serious medical problems while detained.
“When he came to the detention center a year ago, he was extremely healthy. He was very fit. He exercised regularly. He could do 15 to 20 push-ups. Now, he is wheelchair-bound. He is extremely weak,” Athanasiou said.
Athanasiou said Nalwamba was diagnosed with pneumonia in January, lost more than 30 pounds and collapsed while detained. She also says he has suffered from an ongoing respiratory illness since June, and accuses ICE of failing to provide adequate testing and treatment.
Nalwamba described experiencing chest pain, coughing, dizziness and weakness in his legs.
His attorney says his supporters are working to arrange a medical appointment and hope he can begin physical therapy and rehabilitation.
In a statement provided to CBS Colorado in June, the Department of Homeland Security defended the medical care available to people in ICE custody.
“It is a longstanding practice to provide comprehensive medical care from the moment an alien enters ICE custody,” a DHS spokesperson said. According to the agency, that includes access to medical appointments and 24-hour emergency care.
Nalwamba previously served as a priest at Resurrection Anglican Fellowship in Greenwood Village for approximately 15 years. He arrived in the United States from Uganda in 2002 and remained in the country after his tourist visa expired.
Nalwamba and his supporters have said he fears returning to Uganda because of persecution connected to his pro-democracy political activities.
In its June statement, DHS said Nalwamba had overstayed his visa, was granted voluntary departure in 2007 and received a final order of removal in 2010. ICE detained him on Sept. 18, 2025.
Before that arrest, Nalwamba says he had been living under an immigration order of supervision.
His attorneys challenged his prolonged detention through a federal habeas corpus petition, arguing the government could not continue holding him indefinitely.
Athanasiou says she is concerned that ICE could attempt to detain Nalwamba again.
On Monday, a judge granted the petition and ordered Nalwamba released no later than Oct. 20. Despite that ruling, his underlying immigration case remains unresolved.
“I am back to where I was when they first arrested me,” Nalwamba said. “So I was asking myself, ‘Why did they arrest me in the first place?'”
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