ICE buy warehouses for mass detention network
The Trump administration is acquiring industrial warehouses in at least eight states to establish a large-scale immigrant detention network.
Deed records confirm two purchases this month: an 826,000-square-foot building in Williamsport, Maryland, for $102 million, and a 418,400-square-foot warehouse in Surprise, Arizona, for $70 million. Both facilities are expected to accept detainees by April following renovations.
ICE plans to convert 23 industrial properties total, each designed to hold between 1,500 and 10,000 people at a time, for a combined capacity of up to 80,000.
Sites under consideration include a 920,000-square-foot warehouse in Kansas City, Missouri; a 26.8-acre property in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; a 553,000-square-foot facility in Ashland, Virginia; and a former auto parts distribution center in Chester, New York.
Additional locations ICE has toured or expressed interest in are in Roxbury, New Jersey; Social Circle, Georgia; Orlando, Florida; and Hanover County, Virginia.
Properties are typically vacant, large open structures zoned for industrial use, situated near interstates and airports.
Renovations outlined in agency documents include adding holding spaces, offices, visitor areas, cafeterias, bathrooms, medical units, pharmacies, religious service rooms, mailrooms, phone systems, law libraries with internet, attorney meeting rooms, and indoor/outdoor recreation areas with basketball hoops and exercise equipment.
The plan follows a hub-and-spoke model: migrants processed briefly at booking centers, then moved to these large-scale facilities to await deportation.
DHS official Tricia McLaughlin stated the agency “has new funding to expand detention space to keep these criminals off American streets before they are removed for good from our communities.”
She added: “It should not come as news that ICE will be making arrests in states across the U.S. and is actively working to expand detention space.”
ICE expects facilities to begin housing people 30 to 60 days after final design approval and construction start.