"Few provisions in President Donald Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act were as thrilling to immigration hard-liners as the $45 billion it provided to supersize the ICE detention system. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials had long complained that a lack of jail space constrained their ability to deport more people. The bill gave ICE enough money to nearly triple its detention capacity to more than 100,000 beds-a "once-in-a-generation opportunity," the White House called it."
"In Georgia, Virginia, and California, attorneys say immigrants have been forced to sleep on concrete floors without showers or bedding for days. Last month, a district court judge in New York City ordered immediate improvements to the processing center at a federal building in Lower Manhattan, where secretly recorded videos showed packed holding cells and men sleeping beside toilets."
"The lack of detention space has slowed Trump's immigration crackdown at a moment when it was primed to accelerate. From January to June, the average number of detainees per day in ICE custody rose 43 percent, to more than 57,000. But since July, when the funding was approved, the detainee population has increased only about 5 percent, to roughly 60,000, the latest statistics show."
ICE received $45 billion intended to nearly triple detention capacity to more than 100,000 beds. The agency added little new capacity in the three months after the funding was approved. Limited bed space appears to have constrained enforcement growth; arrests peaked in June and declined afterward. State partnerships raised costs without substantially increasing capacity. Short-term processing centers experienced worsening overcrowding and deteriorating conditions, with detainees held in cells designed for hours spending days without showers or bedding. A federal judge ordered immediate improvements after videos showed packed holding cells and men sleeping beside toilets.
Read at The Atlantic
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