ICE looking to expand migrant detention facilities across country, ACLU says
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McALLEN, Texas (Border Report) — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been seeking information on migrant detention facilities around the country for a possible expansion under the Trump administration, and several have responded.

That information, for which the American Civil Liberties Union sued ICE in September, was received last month. However, ACLU senior attorney Eunice Cho told Border Report that much of the “tranche” of information they got was redacted by the agency.

What they were able to gather was that ICE last year requested information about facilities in 17 states and their services and/or how it could expand to meet growing needs. That includes migrant detention facilities run by for-profit companies, like GEO Group and CoreCivic, which operated the South Texas Family Residential Center that was shut down last year in Dilley, Texas.

The South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas, was shut down in 2024, but could be reopened, according to ICE documents. (Sandra Sanchez/Border Report File Photo)

So far, facilities in six states have responded, including Texas facilities in and around Harlingen and El Paso, as well as San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago, Nevada and Salt Lake City, Utah, according to documents received by the ACLU.

The facilities that are being considered in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley include the Willacy County Jail in Raymondville, which is run by the GEO Group; the Brooks County Detention Facility in Falfurrias; the Coastal Bend Detention Center in Robstown; and the East Hidalgo Detention Center in La Villa.

Cho says CoreCivic has also sent information indicating it would be willing to reopen the Dilley facility, and she says that worries migrant advocates who have alleged mistreatment of immigrants at the now-closed facility.

“We have serious concerns about expanding immigration detention in South Texas. Many of these facilities that I’ve just named have very serious histories of conditions, violations and abusive conditions in those detention facilities,” said Cho, who works on the ACLU’s National Prison Project.

She says they want more information on exactly what ICE plans to do.

“The ACLU filed a lawsuit against Immigration Customs Enforcement to obtain documents under the Freedom of Information Act to figure out what detention facilities have basically put themselves up for offer to ICE to detain more immigrants in response to a request for information by ICE,” Cho said. “It’s important for the American public to know exactly what Immigration and Customs Enforcement is planning to do, both in terms of enforcement and in terms of detention of people from our immigrant communities.”

President-elect Donald Trump has promised his administration will detain and deport more immigrants when he takes office later this month.

“Currently, ICE detains approximately 40,000 people per day, and the incoming Trump administration has signaled that it would like to expand capacity over doubling its capacity to over 100,000 people per day. We are concerned, of course, with the potential growth of the immigration detention system,” Cho said.

Border Report has reached out to ICE and asked for confirmation of the facilities that are being considered for expansion. This story will be updated if information is received.

Sandra Sanchez can be reached at SSanchez@BorderReport.com.

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