When it comes to its barbaric and deadly mass deportation agenda, the federal government has been blowing through taxpayer money like it’s going out of style, spending more than $500 million dollars to buy industrial warehouses in multiple states with a goal of transforming these structures into mass detention camps to jail our immigrant neighbors.
The reported figures are staggering, both in scale and costs as working families all across the country continue to struggle with daily costs of living, including groceries, housing, childcare, and healthcare. And, despite that sum’s staggering size, it pales in comparison to the $170 billion in anti-immigrant funding that the federal government received last year. These planned mass detention camps come as key oversight entities have been gutted.
RED STATES, RURAL STATES ARE ALL SAYING ‘WE DO NOT WANT THEM HERE’
“The cost for acquiring two warehouses alone was $172 million,” Bloomberg reported. “A third in El Paso, Texas, could be among the largest jails of any kind in the country if completed as envisioned, with 8,500 beds. The deals mark the latest turn in US Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s plan to use as many as 23 warehouses for detaining thousands of immigrants arrested by federal agents in Minneapolis and other cities.” Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, Senior Fellow at the American Immigration Council, notes two purchases in Maryland and Pennsylvania that totalled a staggering $243 million alone. A second industrial warehouse purchase in Pennsylvania totalled $87 million. “This is unprecedented,” he notes. Again, ICE is wasting hundreds of millions of dollars as hunger is on the rise in America.
In the last month ICE has bought warehouses in:- Hagerstown, MD: $102 million- Surprise, AZ: $70 million- Hamburg, PA: $87 million- Tremont, PA: $120 million- San Antonio, TX: $82 million- El Paso, TX: $123 million- Social Circle, GA: price unknownThis is unprecedented.
— Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (@reichlinmelnick.bsky.social) 2026-02-09T18:09:01.544Z
In Georgia, ICE has reportedly finalized one deal that would turn an industrial warehouse into a detention camp that could detain as many as 10,000 immigrant neighbors, more than double the capacity of the nation’s largest federal prison. “The federal government hasn’t operated a prison camp inside the United States that large since Japanese Internment,” Reichlin-Melnick writes. The Georgia camp could begin jailing immigrants as early as April despite local pushback and concerns of its impact on the city’s water and sewer infrastructure, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
This has been a concern to many neighbors in other prospective detention camp locations, Megan Kocher wrote at Rural Organizing, noting that many of these areas “are rural and don’t have the infrastructure to sustain this.”
“The proposed detention center in Tremont, for example, will be among the largest ICE detention facilities in the country, but residents are already grappling with pollution issues that make it difficult for some to even leave their homes. Not to mention, the facility is also only a few hundred yards away from the local daycare,” Kocher wrote. She also cited concerns around the Georgia camp, including insufficient infrastructure and the proposed site’s close proximity to an elementary school.
“We’re being told that these facilities will be major job providers in our rural communities, but it’s not true,” Kocher continues. “And the potential handful of jobs they do bring can’t outweigh what they cost us. Studies show that prison construction impedes economic growth in rural counties, and I bet the same is true for these proposed detention centers.” Concerned community members have not been silent. While the federal government has been able to proceed on some purchases, local pushback from community members has succeeded in other areas of the country, including conservative regions.
“In Oklahoma City, after several protests and a packed City Council meeting, a company that had planned to sell its warehouse to ICE backed out of the deal – a move cheered by Republican Mayor David Holt,” USA Today reported. KOCO 5 News reports that more than 60 community members had voiced their concerns at the City Council meeting. Following news that the purchase had been cancelled, dozens gathered to celebrate.
“People’s voices are important. I know that a lot of people feel like their voices aren’t,” C.J. Webber-Neal, a neighbor who organized the celebration, told KOCO 5 News. “They feel like it really doesn’t matter what they think, because no one’s going to listen to them, but the actions of the mayor in contacting that company to have that discussion, proves that voices count, and I think that this is a victory for Oklahoma City.” Reagan Burns, another neighbor, said residents are “scared. People are nervous. This is too close to a school, as well, and some people were nervous about that. So, it was the community that really came, put forth and said, ‘We do not want this here.'”
In Virginia’s Hanover County, hundreds of neighbors “recently turned out in force and angrily condemned the proposed sale, with local reports suggesting only a ‘handful’ backed it,” Greg Sargent wrote in The New Republic. “The GOP-heavy Board of Supervisors opposed the transaction. The warehouse owner canceled the sale.”
The Virginia Mercury reported that more than 500 people packed the hearing. “I’m here to tell you that your people are scared,” Mechanicsville’s Kimberly Matthews told supervisors. “This is where we stop that. This is the line in the sand. This is when we say no.” The Rev. Sterling Severns, pastor of Tabernacle Baptist Church in Richmond, said he rejoiced in news that the mass camp would not be going forward. “I love the people of this county,” he said.
EL PAÍS noted how local governments, with pressure from community members, have been working to keep the brutality of mass detention out of their communities.
“In Kansas City, Missouri — where the government planned to locate one of the largest detention centers — the city council passed a resolution in January prohibiting the construction of such facilities in the city for five years,” the report said. “In Maryland, Howard County has revoked the building permit for a private detention center that was being renovated in Elkridge, about 10 miles from Baltimore. The renovations had been underway for months without anyone knowing that the complex was intended for ICE use. As soon as the intended purpose became known, the county official announced he would push for legislation to block it.”
THIS ISN’T ABOUT PUBLIC SAFETY OR THE SO-CALLED ‘WORST OF THE WORST’
Of the massive 70,000 individuals currently in ICE custody, nearly three-quarters have no criminal convictions at all, according to TRAC Immigration. Conditions inside these facilities – many of which are operated by private prison companies under lucrative government contracts – are only going “from bad to worse” as the federal immigration officials seek to increase capacity to even more astronomical levels.
“ICE has been arresting people at courthouses when they’re trying to follow the legal process. They are profiling immigrants around the country, picking people up for the language they speak or the street corner they hang out on,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal (WA-07) said during a December shadow hearing. “So immigration detention centers are full of mothers and fathers and beloved community members while those who pose a threat are free. Amidst this surge in detention, conditions have gone from bad to worse with terrible overcrowding, unsanitary conditions, long waits to get medical help if received at all, and inedible food, described by some as ‘dripping with blood.’ Multiple pregnant women have been shackled and even suffered miscarriages due to their mistreatment in detention.”
