cross-posted from: https://infosec.pub/post/49983979

The new complex near the Virginia border signals that even as ICE has retreated from its plan to buy warehouses, the agency remains determined to increase its detention capacity.

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Internal documents obtained by The New York Times show that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement plans to open a detention center at the complex in northeastern North Carolina by the end of the year. The facility is owned by GEO Group, one of the largest private prison operators in the country. Contract negotiations are ongoing, but the documents show that the facility will have about 1,400 beds, making it among the largest detention centers on the East Coast.

The opening of the facility — the first of its kind in North Carolina — signals that even as ICE has been retreating from its plan to buy up warehouses around the country, it remains determined to increase its capacity for detaining people as part of the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign.

Documents obtained by The Times in June show that ICE plans to offload seven warehouses that it bought for more than $700 million, scaling back a signature initiative under the previous homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem. The Department of Homeland Security sent a letter to Pennsylvania officials this month saying that it no longer planned to use a warehouse in Berks County.

But it continues to partner with private companies like GEO Group to repurpose existing prison complexes in places like North Carolina, Colorado and Arizona, all of which have large immigrant populations.

The agency has to find bed space in places that are perceived as “more friendly” toward such facilities and do not prohibit them, said Claire Trickler-McNulty, a former ICE official who has served in Republican and Democratic administrations.

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North Carolina, which has a powerful Republican-controlled legislature, also recently passed laws that require sheriffs and state law enforcement agencies to cooperate with ICE, which is likely to increase the need for capacity.

The Winton facility is poised to make North Carolina a major hub for ICE detentions along the East Coast, said Stefanía Arteaga, the co-founder of Carolina Migrant Network, an immigrant rights group.

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Local activists have begun to mobilize against the facility, organizing protests and flooding county officials with questions. Bobby Ray Riddick, who retired years ago and used to work at a chicken processing plant, is one of them, with 10,000 followers on Facebook.