The Trump administration has sought to acquire industrial buildings in at least eight states for its mass detention network amid President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, reports The Washington Post.
The Department of Homeland Security in January purchased two buildings, including one in Maryland for $102 million and another in Arizona for $70 million, and toured another 920,000-square-foot warehouse in Kansas City, Mo., though the city council there passed a resolution to try to block new detention centers in the city.
“I’m not sure that this is the type of detention that is humane,” Quinton Lucas, the mayor of Kansas City, Mo., told The Washington Post about plans to transform a warehouse there into an ICE facility that could hold up to 7,500 people.
A draft solicitation document reviewed by the Post in December said ICE planned to hold immigrants in one of seven large-scale warehouses holding 5,000 to 10,000 people each, where they would be staged for deportation.
They include warehouses in Louisiana, Virginia, Texas, Arizona, Georgia, and Missouri.
The agency’s new facilities will “maximize efficiency, minimize costs, shorten processing times, limit lengths of stay, accelerate the removal process, and promote the safety, dignity, and respect for all in ICE custody,” the solicitation said.
Plans for the ICE facilities have drawn scrutiny.
Earlier this month, Democrat Rep. Eugene Vindman spoke out against a proposed ICE “mega detention center” that could house up to 10,000 detainees.
“My family and I came to this country in search of the American Dream, fleeing oppression in Soviet Ukraine with $800 in our pockets,” Vindman said in a statement.
“I believe we’re at our best as a nation when we treat everyone with dignity and respect and provide opportunities to new American families like mine.
“We can have secure borders without being cruel,” he added. “The proposed facility in Stafford would be cruel to the core, counter to the desires of our neighbors in Stafford County.”
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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