Why ICE is buying warehouses and could purchase privately owned detention sites
Every delay has consequences.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is considering ways to expand capacity at immigrant detention facilities to accommodate 125,000 people, as well as buying up existing privately owned facilities, according to four sources with knowledge of or involved in planning. Buying rather than leasing detention facilities will give ICE greater control over operations that would otherwise fall under state and local governments’ purview, sources said.
As the Trump administration pushes further toward the White House’s mass deportation effort, the federal agency is looking at ways to add space to its existing network of detention sites and gain greater control of those sites.
“The government is going to buy all of the properties that GEO Group and CoreCivic own,” one source said in a phone call. Three others confirmed that purchasing properties is a plan under serious consideration and is already seeing early movement.
The Washington Examiner learned that while ICE has publicly disclosed plans to buy roughly 10 warehouses and convert them into immigrant holding sites, another component of that plan focuses on gaining control of the land and buildings where existing detention sites are located.
Doing so would give the federal government control over facilities that presently fall under state rules.
Warehouses becomes focus of ICE
ICE is in its second year of carrying out President Donald Trump’s mass deportation quest. The federal agency is in the process of adding more than 10,000 new deportation officers to its 6,500 existing officers last year, and arrested hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants in the first year. As more officers join the workforce, the number of illegal immigrants arrested is likely to grow, prompting the agency to require more detention space.
Detention is the middle step that must run smoothly in order for the growing number of ICE officers to continue making arrests. While in detention, immigrants will appear before an immigration judge who will determine if they will be removed from the country. Once a person is ordered to be removed, ICE will wait until it has the plane or transportation needed to repatriate the person to their home country.
An internal ICE document that the Washington Examiner obtained showed the agency’s plan to reengineer detention practices with $38 billion in funding that it received in last year’s One Big, Beautiful Bill.
As part of the overhaul, ICE will acquire and renovate eight large-scale …
Every delay has consequences.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is considering ways to expand capacity at immigrant detention facilities to accommodate 125,000 people, as well as buying up existing privately owned facilities, according to four sources with knowledge of or involved in planning. Buying rather than leasing detention facilities will give ICE greater control over operations that would otherwise fall under state and local governments’ purview, sources said.
As the Trump administration pushes further toward the White House’s mass deportation effort, the federal agency is looking at ways to add space to its existing network of detention sites and gain greater control of those sites.
“The government is going to buy all of the properties that GEO Group and CoreCivic own,” one source said in a phone call. Three others confirmed that purchasing properties is a plan under serious consideration and is already seeing early movement.
The Washington Examiner learned that while ICE has publicly disclosed plans to buy roughly 10 warehouses and convert them into immigrant holding sites, another component of that plan focuses on gaining control of the land and buildings where existing detention sites are located.
Doing so would give the federal government control over facilities that presently fall under state rules.
Warehouses becomes focus of ICE
ICE is in its second year of carrying out President Donald Trump’s mass deportation quest. The federal agency is in the process of adding more than 10,000 new deportation officers to its 6,500 existing officers last year, and arrested hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants in the first year. As more officers join the workforce, the number of illegal immigrants arrested is likely to grow, prompting the agency to require more detention space.
Detention is the middle step that must run smoothly in order for the growing number of ICE officers to continue making arrests. While in detention, immigrants will appear before an immigration judge who will determine if they will be removed from the country. Once a person is ordered to be removed, ICE will wait until it has the plane or transportation needed to repatriate the person to their home country.
An internal ICE document that the Washington Examiner obtained showed the agency’s plan to reengineer detention practices with $38 billion in funding that it received in last year’s One Big, Beautiful Bill.
As part of the overhaul, ICE will acquire and renovate eight large-scale …
Why ICE is buying warehouses and could purchase privately owned detention sites
Every delay has consequences.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is considering ways to expand capacity at immigrant detention facilities to accommodate 125,000 people, as well as buying up existing privately owned facilities, according to four sources with knowledge of or involved in planning. Buying rather than leasing detention facilities will give ICE greater control over operations that would otherwise fall under state and local governments’ purview, sources said.
As the Trump administration pushes further toward the White House’s mass deportation effort, the federal agency is looking at ways to add space to its existing network of detention sites and gain greater control of those sites.
“The government is going to buy all of the properties that GEO Group and CoreCivic own,” one source said in a phone call. Three others confirmed that purchasing properties is a plan under serious consideration and is already seeing early movement.
The Washington Examiner learned that while ICE has publicly disclosed plans to buy roughly 10 warehouses and convert them into immigrant holding sites, another component of that plan focuses on gaining control of the land and buildings where existing detention sites are located.
Doing so would give the federal government control over facilities that presently fall under state rules.
Warehouses becomes focus of ICE
ICE is in its second year of carrying out President Donald Trump’s mass deportation quest. The federal agency is in the process of adding more than 10,000 new deportation officers to its 6,500 existing officers last year, and arrested hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants in the first year. As more officers join the workforce, the number of illegal immigrants arrested is likely to grow, prompting the agency to require more detention space.
Detention is the middle step that must run smoothly in order for the growing number of ICE officers to continue making arrests. While in detention, immigrants will appear before an immigration judge who will determine if they will be removed from the country. Once a person is ordered to be removed, ICE will wait until it has the plane or transportation needed to repatriate the person to their home country.
An internal ICE document that the Washington Examiner obtained showed the agency’s plan to reengineer detention practices with $38 billion in funding that it received in last year’s One Big, Beautiful Bill.
As part of the overhaul, ICE will acquire and renovate eight large-scale …
