ICE aims to expand immigration detention efforts in Texas

FORT WORTH – The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports that President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to carry out the largest deportation operation in American history, and recently obtained documents reveal that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been making plans to expand immigration detention in Texas and other states since before he won the election. The documents were obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union through a Freedom of Information Act request and lawsuit filed earlier this year. They show that ICE issued a Request for Information for “Multi-State Detention Facility Support” to private prison and logistics services vendors earlier this year. The deadline to send responses was June 23. “What these FOIA requests revealed is especially concerning, since ICE detention facilities have historically disregarded the health, dignity, and constitutional rights of migrants,” said Adriana Piñon, legal director for the ACLU of Texas. “Texas’ diverse communities deserve resources, like better schools and access to health care, to help them flourish, not more immigration officials splintering our vibrant migrant communities and jailing people in inhumane conditions.”

Three companies — CoreCivic, the GEO Group and the Management & Training Corporation — sent responses expressing their interest in providing detention services in Texas. On June 21, Tennessee-based CoreCivic submitted information about a facility it operated in Dilley, Texas, to support ICE’s operations out of its field office in Harlingen. ICE terminated the contract for that facility on June 10, citing cost concerns. Ryan Gustin, CoreCivic’s director of public affairs, confirmed that the company no longer operates that facility. Immigration advocates have pointed to abusive conditions at the facility, including a 19-month-old migrant child who died after leaving the facility in 2018, which sparked an investigation into allegations of abuse and neglect. CoreCivic also submitted information about two facilities it operates in New Mexico that fall under the jurisdiction of ICE’s El Paso field office. Critics have denounced “inhumane conditions” at those facilities. Gustin told the Star-Telegram in an email that all of its immigration detention facilities “operate with a significant amount of oversight and accountability.”