First-of-their-kind detention sites in red states across the country are giving the Trump administration the bed space needed to carry out a dramatic expansion of its immigration enforcement agenda.
Due to a shortage of federally contracted detention space, the Department of Homeland Security has brokered deals to build new and sometimes make-shift facilities that allow Immigration and Customs Enforcement to arrest thousands of additional illegal border crossers.
Since July, the DHS has announced the openings of Alligator Alcatraz and Deportation Depot in Florida; Speedway Slammer in Indiana; Cornhusker Clink in Nebraska; Louisiana Lockup in Louisiana; with more alliterative facilities expected on the horizon.
Combined, the state sites have enough capacity to hold nearly 10,000 more illegal immigrants beyond the roughly 50,000 beds available at existing ICE facilities, and though some have faced legal challenges, most notably Alligator Alcatraz, the administration has vowed to move forward with its detention center expansion.
The recently passed One Big, Beautiful Bill includes funding for another 80,000 beds, according to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, and immigration analysts anticipate ICE will use up the state facility space as it ramps up its enforcement within the country’s interior.
At present, ICE has 6,500 officers who focus on arresting and deporting illegal immigrants, but the tax law also provided money for the hiring of 10,000 new officers.
The hiring spree will mean more illegal immigrants can be arrested, driving a demand for more detention space as a result.
“They are staffing up to make more arrests, and because they’re doing that, they’re going to need to have facilities [to detain people],” said Andrew “Art” Arthur, a former immigration judge and resident fellow in law and policy at the Center for Immigration Studies, which supports lower immigration levels.
A federal contractor who works directly with ICE on detention space said in a phone call Friday that government-contracted facilities are at capacity, making the state sites already necessary to detain the illegal immigrants being apprehended.
“The facilities right now are at max capacity,” said the official, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak with the media. “Big GEO and Core Civic facilities are at max capacity, so ICE definitely needs the bed space.”
Just this week, ICE arrested roughly 400 workers at a Hyundai car manufacturing plant in Georgia.
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Illegal immigrants in detention must go before a federal immigration judge who determines if they will be deported, and the administration views the extra bed space as a way to prevent the “catch and release” policies of the prior administration.
Separately, the White House wants to divert military lawyers to take on immigration cases in the hope of clearing a large court backlog.
