ICE holds people in disgusting conditions. Now it's turning warehouses into camps | Moira Donegan

"There is a vast building, reportedly the size of seven football fields, in Surprise, Arizona, a suburb of Phoenix; ICE bought it for $70m. Another building, along the southern border in San Antonio, Texas, was valued at $37m; it's 640,000 sq ft. In January, ICE bought a warehouse in Upper Bern Township, Pennsylvania, not far outside of Philadelphia, for $87.4m."

"In Williamsport, Maryland, outside Hagerstown, the cost of a facility on a nearly 54-acre plot was $102m. These are massive, industrial spaces, built for holding goods to be shipped elsewhere. Warehouses are drafty and difficult to heat, hard-floored and high-ceilinged, not meant for human habitation. But the Trump administration is aiming to convert them into vast detention camps for immigrants. Some of the buildings could house as many as 9,000 people at a time."

ICE has purchased multiple massive warehouses across the United States, including sites in Surprise, Arizona ($70m), San Antonio ($37m), Upper Bern Township, Pennsylvania ($87.4m), Williamsport, Maryland ($102m). These buildings are industrial warehouses not designed for habitation: drafty, hard-floored, high-ceilinged, and difficult to heat. The Trump administration plans to convert them into large detention centers with capacities up to 9,000 people. ICE currently detains about 70,000 people nightly across 224 facilities, a number that has nearly doubled in a year. Recent purchases follow increased DHS and ICE scouting, enabled by $45bn in new ICE funding, to expand mass detention and deportation operations.

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