ICE Is Buying Up Mega Warehouses Across America

[Munu]

ICE Is Buying Up Mega Warehouses Across America
The New Republic

Immigration and Customs Enforcement is buying up warehouses across the country to build a massive network of detention centers. Hundreds of millions of dollars have already been spent to create huge immigrant jails, often in small towns, Bloomberg reports. The agency paid $102 million for a warehouse near Hagerstown, Maryland, and $70 million in cash for a warehouse in Surprise, Arizona.

And that’s just the cost to purchase the buildings—ICE also has to pay to turn them into jails with bathrooms, beds, dining, and recreation facilities. A third warehouse purchase in El Paso, Texas, could be one of the largest jails in the United States when completed, housing 8,500 beds.

ICE plans to use up to 23 warehouses around the country to detain immigrants in even more cities, including in Minnesota, Indiana, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. The new strategy is a shift for ICE and the Department of Homeland Security, which has been relying on many tent camps, such as the notorious “Alligator Alcatraz” in south Florida.

...

ICE’s warehouse plan is full of flaws, but the chief obstacle is the opposition from local residents, which only grows with every negative ICE headline. Will this mega network of warehouse jails get built, and will they even be safe to house thousands of people, including possibly U.S. citizens?

[dalton99a]

1. Kick

[pfitz59]

2. Stack 'em like cord wood

with the same humanity

[RandySF]

3. I see major safety issues.

[PatSeg]

4. I wonder who they'll hire to build these prisons

[littlemissmartypants]

19. They are buying abandoned warehouses.

[PatSeg]

25. Yes, I know

They'll need contractors and laborers to convert them into "jails", the kinds of jobs that often go to immigrants.

[Irish_Dem]

5. Plenty of money to build concentration camps.

No money for public services, science, healthcare, vaccines, groceries.

[orangecrush]

13. Here we go

?si=TiGRhQKYdjL4WyzS

[Irish_Dem]

14. Yes we are in a civil war. Civilians are being killed.

Assaulted, kidnapped, detained, murdered.

[Chasstev365]

6. Gas chambers included? And so many Americans could careless.

[littlemissmartypants]

18. Slave labor camps. Forget UBE but combine slaves and AI automation...

(Eloons Planet Tier Dreamland.)

[LudwigPastorius]

22. No, no, no...

"recreation facilities"

[Tetrachloride]

7. All those construction contractors, all those local politicians, all those realtors. Track them.

[sakabatou]

8. So... concentration camps. ICE is making concentration camps

[Attilatheblond]

12. Trump is not going well with hotels, so he needed a new business.

[B.See]

31. YES. CONCENTRATION CAMPS. Newsflash:

and they WON'T only be for 'immigrants.'

[vapor2]

9. Heard on Velshi this morning

that those helping to build these warehouses are complicit

[Girard442]

10. Bathrooms? Beds? Who needs those when you have buckets and concrete floors?

[orangecrush]

11. For us.

[czarjak]

15. They'll be up to code too?

Sounds like a racket!
A profitable 1-2.

[WestMichRad]

24. Code?

[LetMyPeopleVote]

16. Local communities shut down Trump admin efforts to expand ICE detention centers

Rachel Maddow has done several reports on the efforts of local communities to block the opening of ICE/DHS prisons in local communities. I am glad to see other media sources to start reporting on the efforts of ICE/DHS to open numerous new prison/concentration camps.

Local communities shut down Trump admin efforts to expand ICE detention centers

— Raw Story (@rawstory.com) 2026-01-30T20:00:04Z

https://www.rawstory.com/ice-2675062021/

Multiple communities have hit back hard against the Trump administration as it seeks to expand its capacity to detain migrants across the nation, with at least one successful in shutting down an effort to turn a 26-acre warehouse into a migrant processing center, The Washington Post reported Friday.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement is working to convert industrial buildings into detention centers across 23 different towns, an effort that would expand its detention capacity by 80,000.

One such effort materialized last month after DHS altered a plan to purchase a 26-acre warehouse and transform it into a migrant processing center. News of the planned purchase spread fast, and sparked outrage among locals, outrage strong enough that the purchase ultimately fell through.

Multiple communities have hit back hard against the Trump administration as it seeks to expand its capacity to detain migrants across the nation, with at least one successful in shutting down an effort to turn a 26-acre warehouse into a migrant processing center, The Washington Post reported Friday.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement is working to convert industrial buildings into detention centers across 23 different towns, an effort that would expand its detention capacity by 80,000.

One such effort materialized last month after DHS altered a plan to purchase a 26-acre warehouse and transform it into a migrant processing center. News of the planned purchase spread fast, and sparked outrage among locals, outrage strong enough that the purchase ultimately fell through.

[littlemissmartypants]

17. I learned this morning that they are specifically looking at real-estate close to train lines. No shit.

[WestMichRad]

28. Or airports.

Contractors have been buying up used passenger planes. Probably for two purposes: one, to ship off detainees to foreign countries bribed to accept detainees; and two, a network of camps near transport hubs, for shuffling detainees around so they get “lost in the system” for the purpose of evading judicial orders.

[littlemissmartypants]

33. How did you learn about this? Wow.

[WestMichRad]

43. It was a news item a couple months ago

…that they were trying to acquire suitable sites for detentions near airports. One community in Oregon had raised a big stink and blocked the one there, near a regional airport. Around that time, there was an article (maybe in The Atlantic? but I’m guessing about the source) that they were shipping detainees around the U.S. quite a bit, apparently to try and “lose” them from judicial scrutiny. The item about contractors recently buying used passenger planes I saw in a DU thread a couple days ago.

Sorry that I don’t have any specific details.

[SamuelTheThird]

20. Obama deported 1 million people during his terms

Yet we saw none of what is going on now. This isn't about immigration.

[B.See]

32. no... it isn't.

[tonekat]

23. Be a real shame...

...if those warehouses burned down. Lots of lightning these days...spontaneous combustion too.

[Cirsium]

26. Konzentrationslager

No other interpretation is possible.

[littlemissmartypants]

35. Yep.

[Cirsium]

36. Hard to process

Relentless, oppressive. The horror show just keeps getting worse and worse.

[littlemissmartypants]

37. It sure can seem that way.

Please read this reply that I just wrote to PatSeg:

https://democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=20988678

Stay encouraged, Cirsium.



❤️

[Cirsium]

40. Thanks

Good post.

[littlemissmartypants]

42. My pleasure, Cirsium. ❤️

[PCIntern]

27. Showers and large ovens?

[littlemissmartypants]

41. As long as they can make it into a grift... you know it!

But don't expect quality work from the robber baron contractors. The old playbook is still relevant and they are so fu>kn lazy they will probably plan to have the first round of captives do all the labor. They better be ready for sabotage is all I've got to say.

Thanks for the reply, PCI.



❤️

[doc03]

29. Like in Germany I think he is building camps for Americans that don't support him. nt

[IcyPeas]

30. ICE arent stopping anytime soon... looks like they're planning for the future

[littlemissmartypants]

38. But so are we, IP. So are we. Stay strong. ❤️

[La Coliniere]

34. Who gets the contract for the

“work makes you free” entrance gates to these concentration camps?

[purr-rat beauty]

39. Correction.....WE are buying these warehouses

So they can oppress us all