ICE to Significantly Increase Detention Capacity, Including Major Expansion in Arizona
In a significant development reported by the Washington Post, the Trump administration is planning to substantially increase the number of detention spaces under the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) jurisdiction across the United States. This expansion will notably include new facilities in Arizona.
According to internal documents obtained by the Post, ICE aims to boost its detention capacity to accommodate over 107,000 individuals at any given time. This marks a significant rise from the capacity of approximately 54,500 at the year’s start, which had already increased to nearly 66,000 by July.
In Arizona, the Maricopa County Jail and the Marana Correctional Facility near Tucson are set to be repurposed for immigrant detention purposes. These facilities have not previously been used for this purpose.
Jordan Garcia, serving as the Colorado program coordinator for the American Friends Service Committee, highlighted the lack of local input concerning federally contracted facilities. “People tend to get really frustrated when they don’t have local control, so the county itself wouldn’t have as much control over the facility if it’s a federally contracted facility,” he commented. “People are like ‘oh, I really thought that we would have some sort of say of how things will go in our community,’ and then they get this facility that’s federally-contracted, and then they don’t have that decision-making power.”
Moreover, the Central Arizona Florence Correctional Center, located south of Phoenix, is also set to increase its bed capacity. CoreCivic, the private company managing the facility, mentioned compliance with ICE’s procurement procedures and directed any capacity-related inquiries to the agency.
Overall, Arizona is expected to see an addition of over 1,200 new detention beds, positioning it as the fifth largest in terms of capacity nationwide, as per the Washington Post.
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