U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is moving forward with a controversial plan to detain over 80,000 immigrants in industrial storage facilities. This expansion of the detention system has sparked significant ethical and practical concerns, as critics argue that it transforms human beings into mere logistics issues to be processed and relocated akin to packages.
According to a draft solicitation obtained by the Washington Post, ICE plans to establish seven large-scale warehouses designed to hold between 5,000 and 10,000 individuals each, alongside 16 smaller facilities with capacities of up to 1,500. These facilities will be strategically located near major logistics hubs in Virginia, Texas, Louisiana, Arizona, Georgia, and Missouri. This setup aims to create a “feeder system” where newly detained individuals are cycled through processing sites before being prepared for deportation.
Todd M. Lyons, the Acting Director of ICE, has stated the administration’s operational philosophy clearly: “We need to get better at treating this like a business,” he remarked earlier this year. “Like Prime, but with human beings.” This analogy has raised serious alarms about the treatment of detainees within these proposed facilities.
The implications of housing individuals in warehouses, designed primarily for storage and shipping, have been met with skepticism from commercial real estate experts. Warehouses typically lack essential features such as adequate ventilation, temperature controls, and access to plumbing and sanitation infrastructure, which are necessary to support thousands of residents.
Advocacy groups have voiced strong opposition to the plan. Tania Wolf, an advocate with the National Immigration Project, described the proposal as “dehumanizing,” emphasizing that it reduces individuals to a status comparable to livestock. Current conditions in ICE facilities already reflect systemic issues; the agency is currently detaining over 68,000 individuals, a record high, with nearly 48 percent of those having no criminal convictions or pending charges.
The largest existing facility, located at Fort Bliss, has faced scrutiny for operational shortcomings, including employing less than two-thirds of its contracted security personnel as noted by government inspectors. Former ICE Chief of Staff Jason Houser underscored the challenges of staffing such extensive facilities, stating that “the ability to operate the facilities safely is always limited by staffing.”
The administration has already committed to a $30 million contract for the design of these facilities, which has prompted backlash from the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation. The tribe’s leadership withdrew from involvement after their business partner pursued the contract against the tribe’s wishes. Tribal Chairman Joseph “Zeke” Rupnick expressed the tribe’s commitment to ensuring that economic interests do not conflict with their values in the future.
This warehouse initiative follows the administration’s broader $45 billion detention expansion plan, which has included reviving dormant prisons, repurposing military bases, and constructing remote tent encampments. So far in 2023, the administration has deported over 579,000 individuals.
The proposed warehouse system highlights ongoing debates about immigration policy and the treatment of migrants in the United States. As plans move forward, advocates continue to voice concerns about the ethical implications of such a system and its potential impact on those detained.
