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The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) says so Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is looking to expand its migrant detention facilities with the start of the new Trump administration just days away, according to a report.
Trump has pledged to carry out the largest deportation operation in US history, and part of that program is expected to include the use of ICE detention facilities, some of which according to the ACLU raise concerns for the safety of migrants.
ICE detains approximately 37,000 people each day through a network of more than 120 immigration detention centers across the country, according to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit filed by the ACLU, citing documents from the ICE. The ACLU says the Trump administration plans to increase these numbers to 100,000 per day.
Trump’s “border czar,” Tom Homan, has vowed to deport illegal immigrants. (Fox News)
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Although ICE has five detention facilities of its own, the ACLU says ICE relies on other entities, such as nonprofit and intergovernmental agreements with private prison companies, to hold most people under his custody.
In the ACLU’s FOIA lawsuit filed in September, the ACLU sued ICE for information about a possible expansion of migrant detention centers across the country.
According to Border Report, citing documents obtained by the ACLU, facilities in six states responded to ICE’s request, including facilities in and around Harlingen and El Paso, Texas, as well as in San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago, Nevada and Salt Lake City. , Utah.
Facilities being considered in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley include the Willacy County Jail in Raymondville, run by the GEO Group; the Brooks County Detention Center in Falfurrias; the Coastal Bend Detention Center in Robstown; and the East Hidalgo Detention Center in La Villa.
Exterior view from the immigration detention center on August 20, 2023 in Elizabeth, New Jersey. (Kena Betancur/VIEWpress)
ACLU Senior Counsel Eunice Cho told Border Report that it’s important for the American public to know exactly what ICE is planning to do, both in terms of enforcement and detaining people of our immigrant communities.
The GEO Group and CoreCivic operated the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas, which closed last year, but Cho says CoreCivic says it would be willing to reopen the facility, a potential move that worries . defenders of migrants which have involved mistreatment of immigrants at the facility.
“We have serious concerns about the expansion of immigration detention in South Texas. Many of these facilities … have very serious histories of conditions, violations and abusive conditions in these detention centers,” Cho said. in Border Report.
She says the ACLU wants more information about what exactly ICE plans to do.
“We are of course concerned about the potential growth of the immigration detention system,” Cho said.
Fox News Digital has reached out to ICE and the ACLU for comment.
Migrants at an ICE detention facility at Shreveport Regional Airport (SHV) in Shreveport, Louisiana on August 14, 2024. (Via Getty Images/Bloomberg)
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The exact details of President-elect Trump’s deportation plan aren’t exactly clear, though both he and “border czar” Tom Homan have said that criminal migrants will be the first target. Trump has also appointed South Dakota’s hardline governor. Kristi Noem serve as Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Homan, for his part, has said that family detention centers for migrants are too “at the table”.
Family detention ended in 2021, shortly after President Biden took office, and that included closing three ICE facilities with about 3,000 beds, according to Fox 5 DC.
