Border Patrol officer stands behind tape during demonstrators’ standoff with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and federal officers in the Little Village neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois, US, October 4, 2025. PHOTO: REUTERS
US immigration authorities plan to sharply increase the number of immigrants they can detain by the end of 2026, earmarking $38 billion to acquire and renovate detention centres, according to newly released government documents.
The expansion would raise the bed capacity of Immigration and Customs Enforcement to 92,600 as it prepares for heightened “enforcement operations and arrests in 2026.”
The Trump administration has been pursuing a controversial campaign of mass deportations of undocumented immigrants and expanding detention space as it works toward a target of housing 100,000 people in custody.
ICE will acquire and renovate eight “large-scale detention centres” and 16 “processing sites” by the end of the fiscal year, according to a document labelled “ICE Detention Reengineering Initiative.”
The agency would also purchase “10 existing ‘turnkey’ facilities where ICE … already operates,” the document said, adding that $38.3 billion would come from funds made available through President Donald Trump’s signature spending bill passed last year.
About 40,000 people were in ICE detention when Trump took office, a figure that has steadily risen amid reports of overcrowding at holding facilities.
The new documents were released on Thursday by the governor of New Hampshire, who is expected to host one of the new facilities.
The large detention centres would each hold between 7,000 and 10,000 people, while the smaller processing sites would house between 1,000 and 1,500, according to the document.
AFP has previously reported allegations of medical neglect, unsanitary food, and harsh conditions at an ICE holding facility in Texas.
ICE aims to have the new facilities operational by Nov. 30.
The plans surfaced as Congress remained locked in a standoff over funding for the department that oversees ICE, raising the prospect of a partial government shutdown beginning Saturday.
