HOUSTON — New documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union reveal that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is actively considering proposals to expand its immigration detention capacity in Texas as well as California, Kansas, Nevada, New Mexico, and Washington state.
The records, obtained as a result of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit filed by the ACLU in September 2024, disclose that private prison corporations, as well as other corporate entities that provide services to build temporary facilities, monitor compliance, and staff facilities submitted proposals for expanded immigration detention in response to ICE’s contract requests. The discovery comes just weeks after the ACLU received its first tranche of FOIA documents revealing that ICE is considering expanding detention in three different facilities in New Jersey.
“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.”
The ACLU has called on state and local officials throughout the country to build a firewall for freedom that would protect fundamental rights from likely attacks during the second Trump administration.
The FOIA documents reveal that GEO Group, Inc., CoreCivic, and the Management & Training Corporation (MTC) submitted contract proposals to Requests for Information to expand detention capacity and facilities, several of which have a lengthy history of abusive conditions. The records show that in Texas, there is a proposal from the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, TX – a facility where children as young as 19 months have died as a result poor medical care.
ICE also withheld a number of documents in its FOIA disclosure, obscuring the names of the specific facilities. However, the documents produced also indicate that its detention facilities under consideration include:
- MTC facility in South Texas, which may include the Willacy County Jail in Raymondville, TX (Proposal by MTC for the Harlingen Field Office)
- GEO Group, Inc. facility in South Texas, which may include the Brooks County Detention Center, Falfurrias, TX; Coastal Bend Detention Center, Robstown, TX; or the East Hidalgo Detention Center in LaVilla, TX (Proposal by GEO Group, Inc. For the Harlingen Field Office)
Other corporate entities, including Kastel Enterprises, LLC, and Active Deployment Systems, which provide services to build temporary facilities, and Sabot Consulting, which provides compliance monitoring and detention staffing services, also submitted responses to ICE’s request.
As the ACLU has previously documented, the federal government’s immigration detention system overwhelmingly relies on private prison corporations. Private prison corporations, like the GEO Group, CoreCivic, LaSalle Corrections, and the Management & Training Corporation have pocketed billions from ICE detention contracts over the past two decades.
Access FOIA records here: https://www.aclu.org/documents/multi-state-detention-facility-support-foia-documents-request-for-information
