"With great fanfare last summer, House and Senate Republicans approved $45 billion to expand Immigration and Customs Enforcement's detention capacity as part of their signature catchall bill, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. This exorbitant amount-one of many line items in the bill's historic ramp-up of immigration enforcement funding-was considered an easy part of the bill to pass. Republicans didn't fight over it. Democrats, still angsty after the 2024 election about looking soft on immigration, didn't call much attention to it."
"From Maryland and Virginia to Georgia, Mississippi, Missouri, Arizona, and everywhere in between, massive warehouses that the Department of Homeland Security is purchasing to convert into detention centers are being met with fierce resistance. It should go without saying that Democratic officials, who've recently rediscovered their courage in opposing Donald Trump's immigration enforcement plans, don't want 1,500-to-10,000-bed cogs in Trump's deportation machine within their jurisdictions-or anyone else's."
Congress approved $45 billion to expand ICE detention capacity through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, funding a historic ramp-up in immigration enforcement. DHS is purchasing large warehouses nationwide to convert into detention centers holding 1,500–10,000 people. Local officials and communities across states from Maryland to Arizona are mounting fierce resistance to proposed facilities. Democratic officials oppose placing large detention hubs in their jurisdictions; many Republican lawmakers who supported the funding now object when sites are proposed locally. The opposition reflects political tension between support for enforcement goals and unwillingness to host detention infrastructure.
Read at Slate Magazine
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