A Ugandan-born Anglican pastor who spent 13 months in a Colorado immigration jail was freed this week after a federal judge ordered his release — but not before fellow detainees had to physically carry him out because the facility didn't provide a wheelchair, according to States Newsroom.

Rev. Edward Nalwamba, who is approaching his 79th birthday, was lifted by other detainees and walked roughly half a mile to a waiting vehicle on his way out of the GEO Group-run Aurora ICE Processing Center. He told reporters he felt sorrow for the people he left behind, calling them "good people."

A rapid health decline

Nalwamba's attorney, Joy Athanasiou, said he became malnourished, developed pneumonia and lost the ability to walk unaided during his detention, which began when ICE arrested him in September 2025 as he was on his way to care for a person with developmental disabilities. He collapsed in January and spent roughly 10 days in the facility's infirmary, according to KGNU, which first reported on his deteriorating condition over the summer.

WATCHING THE OTHER DETAINEES VOLUNTEER TO CARRY HIM AND HIS BELONGINGS WAS HEARTBREAKING AND INFURIATING.

That's how Athanasiou described the scene to reporters, adding that she had repeatedly raised concerns about his medical care with facility staff. Sen. John Hickenlooper's office said staff visited the Aurora facility to press GEO Group, the private contractor that runs it, to provide Nalwamba a wheelchair and phone access to the caretakers he normally assists.

Nalwamba first came to the U.S. in 2002 and later sought asylum, saying he feared persecution in Uganda over his past criticism of the government there. An appellate court denied that asylum claim in 2010, which his current attorneys say resulted from inadequate legal representation at the time. He lived under ICE supervision without incident for years before this detention, according to advocates who had pushed for his release, including reporting from Uganda that tracked the case over the summer.

Federal immigration officials maintain he received adequate medical care during detention and that he remains subject to an existing deportation order. His attorneys have a motion pending before the Board of Immigration Appeals to reopen his asylum case, meaning his fight to stay in the country isn't over even though he's no longer behind the facility's fences.

Nalwamba had served the Resurrection Anglican Fellowship in Greenwood Village before his arrest. His release comes amid a broader surge in ICE detention capacity in Colorado, where a new contract signed earlier this year is set to nearly double the state's detention bed space.