The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has announced that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is considering expanding its immigration detention facilities just days before the new Trump administration takes office.
President Trump has vowed to carry out the largest deportation operation in U.S. history, part of which is expected to include the use of ICE detention facilities, and the ACLU says part of the plan will include the use of ICE detention facilities. It is said that this is causing concern.
ICE detains approximately 37,000 people each day through a network of more than 120 immigration detention facilities across the country, according to an ACLU Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit citing ICE documents. The Trump administration plans to increase that number to 100,000 per day, according to the ACLU.
President-elect Trump’s “border czar” Tom Homan has vowed to deport illegal immigrants. (Fox News)
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Although ICE owns five detention facilities of its own, the ACLU says it relies on other parties, including nonprofit organizations and intergovernmental agreements with private prison companies, to detain the majority of its people. It is said that there is
In an ACLU FOIA lawsuit filed in September, the ACLU sued ICE for information regarding the potential expansion of immigrant detention facilities across the country.
Border Reports, citing documents received by the ACLU, said facilities in six states responded to ICE’s requests, including facilities around Harlingen and El Paso, Texas, San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago, Nevada and Salt Lake City. , Utah.
Facilities being considered in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley include Willacy County Jail in Raymondville, operated by GEO Group; Brooks County Detention Center in Falfurrias. Coastal Bend Detention Center in Robstown. and the East Hidalgo Detention Center in La Villa.
Exterior view from an immigration detention center in Elizabeth, New Jersey, on August 20, 2023. (Kena Betancourt/VIEWpress)
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ACLU Senior Counsel Eunice Cho told Border Report it’s important for Americans to know exactly what ICE is up to, both in enforcement and in detaining people in the immigrant community.
GEO Group and CoreCivic operate the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas, which closed last year, but Cho said CoreCivic has indicated it intends to reopen the facility. The possibility is worrying immigrant advocates who allege abuses. Immigrants in the facility.
“We are deeply concerned about the expansion of immigrant detention in South Texas. Many of these facilities…have very serious histories of conditions, violations, and abuse within the facilities,” Cho said. he told Border Report.
She says the ACLU wants to know exactly what ICE is planning.
“Of course we are concerned about the potential expansion of the immigration detention system,” Cho said.
Fox News Digital has reached out to ICE and the ACLU for comment.
Immigrants in an ICE detention center at Shreveport Regional Airport (SHV) in Shreveport, Louisiana, on August 14, 2024. (Wayan Barre/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
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The exact details of President-elect Trump’s deportation plans are unclear, but both he and incoming “border czar” Tom Homan have said criminal immigrants will be targeted first. . President Trump also appointed hard-line South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem to head the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Meanwhile, Homan said family detention centers for immigrants are also “on the table.”
Family detention ended in 2021, shortly after President Biden took office, and included the closure of three ICE facilities with about 3,000 beds, according to Fox 5 DC.
Michael Dorgan is a writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business.
Send tips to michael.dorgan@fox.com and follow us on Twitter @M_Dorgan.
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