Record-breaking deportations follow a summer spike in immigration apprehensions
The Trump administration has allocated a significant portion of funds towards expanding immigration detention facilities and increasing deportations. According to reports from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and data obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests by the Deportation Data Project, a repository of immigration enforcement data at the University of California, Berkeley, $45 billion has been designated for expanding detention, and $14 billion is set aside for transporting people out of the country.
The Laken Riley Act, enacted during the Trump administration, expanded the types of immigrants whom ICE is required to keep in detention. This includes individuals accused of low-level crimes such as shoplifting.
The ten main locations of the new immigration detention centers built under the Trump administration include a large tent camp at Fort Bliss Army Base in Texas (El Paso), multiple facilities using federal prisons and jails across states such as California (California City), Miami, Atlanta, Kansas, Philadelphia, New Hampshire, and Brooklyn. Besides Fort Bliss, at least two more detention camps were planned on military bases, but specific other main locations were not detailed in the available information.
ICE also intends to expand detention partnerships with state and local governments, such as the one for the facility Florida has named "Alligator Alcatraz," according to McLaughlin, a DHS spokesperson. Among the detention centers are Delaney Hall, a private facility run by the Geo Group in Newark, New Jersey; a tent facility in El Paso, Texas, that was formerly used by the U.S. Border Patrol; the Guantánamo Bay naval base; a reopened family detention center in Dilley, Texas; federal prisons in Atlanta, New York City, Miami, and Philadelphia, and a large number of state and local jails and prisons.
Tricia McLaughlin also revealed that the new funding would go towards hiring 10,000 ICE agents and adding 80,000 new detention beds. However, Blas Nunez-Neto, who was a homeland security adviser to President Joe Biden, stated that ICE will likely need to hire more agents not only to arrest people but also to ensure due process.
It's worth noting that people held in detention are more likely to have their cases end with a removal order and are also more likely to abandon their cases and agree to be deported, according to Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council.
Since Trump took office on January 20, ICE has added at least 50 new detention centers, holding more than 6,000 people at the end of July. The ongoing expansion of immigration detention facilities and deportations under the Trump administration continues to raise concerns about human rights and due process.
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