As part of their rapid increase in detention operations around the country, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is moving forward with a plan to convert warehouses across the United States into detention centers to establish a “feeder system”. Internal ICE documents leaked to the Washington Post last year showed plans for seven “large scale detention centers” with up to 10,000 beds each and sixteen “processing centers” with up to 1,500 beds each. These plans indicate a desire to expand the scale of operations going forwards, in spite of ongoing mass resistance.
In April of last year, ICE Director Todd Lyons stated “We need to get better at treating this like a business… like (Amazon) Prime, but with human beings.” Congress set aside $170 billion for border security in the 2025 budget reconciliation package, including a tenfold increase in ICE funding; $45 billion of which is marked for the construction of the 100,000 new detention spaces. According to residents in some of those areas, ICE officials were spotted making visits to the proposed sites, indicating that their plans are actively moving forward. These areas include Chester, NY (located less than 50 miles from New York City), southern Kansas City, MO, and Orlando, FL.
Despite the aggressive plan, ICE has been facing both internal and external pressures preventing it from expanding its operations at the rate desired by the Trump administration. ICE’s current largest detention center, a makeshift set of tents at Fort Bliss (El Paso, TX), was found to be in violation of more than 60 of the federal government’s own standards for immigrant detention. Those violations include medical neglect, improper meals, isolating detainees from family and legal representatives, and employing less than two-thirds of the personnel deemed necessary.
Even with the increase in funding it is receiving, ICE has fallen short of its goal of hiring 10,000 new enforcement agents, resulting in mounting pressure from the Trump administration to reach daily arrest quotas. An earlier attempt to expand detainee capacity by establishing a facility at Guantanamo Bay failed to materialize. ICE’s failure to meet the Trump administration’s targets means that other law enforcement agencies, such as the FBI, National Guard, and local police departments, have been increasingly brought in to maintain arrest and detention quotas.
Widespread abuses caused by the increase in ICE activity have resulted in a skyrocketing external opposition. A report by multiple human and civil rights groups, including the ACLU, on the Fort Bliss detention center alleged severe abuse of detainees’ rights. A detainee death at the Fort Bliss center which took place on January 3 is likely to be classified as a homicide by the El Paso County Medical Examiner. Additionally, recent polling indicates that a majority of Americans view the killing of Renee Good by ICE as an improper use of force, and the same majority views ICE enforcement operations as reducing, not improving, safety.
