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A leaked memo shows the biggest expansion ever

An internal ICE memo lays out a $38.3 billion plan to overhaul immigration detention in the United States.

The document, dated Feb. 13, 2026, came out through New Hampshire Gov. Kelly Ayotte’s office after a Senate hearing that day.

ICE calls it the Detention Reengineering Initiative and describes it as the agency’s long-term plan to support mass deportations.

If built, the 34 new facilities would mark the largest expansion of immigration detention in U.S. history.

The plan calls for mega-centers nationwide

The biggest pieces of the plan are eight mega-centers, each designed to hold between 7,000 and 10,000 people for stays averaging under 60 days.

On top of that, ICE wants 16 regional processing sites, each holding about 1,000 to 1,500 people for stays of three to seven days.

The agency also plans to take over 10 existing facilities where it already runs operations. All together, those 34 sites would push ICE’s total bed capacity to about 92,600.

ICE wants everything up and running by the end of November 2026.

The price tag dwarfs past spending

The $38.3 billion comes from the $45 billion set aside for detention in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

President Donald Trump signed that law on July 4, 2025, and it included about $170 billion total for immigration enforcement.

To put the new spending in context, the entire immigration detention budget for fiscal year 2024 was about $3.4 billion.

The new plan costs more than the annual budgets of 22 U.S. states, according to the Washington Post.

ICE plans to convert warehouses into facilities

Instead of leasing space from private companies, ICE wants to buy industrial warehouses and convert them into detention centers.

The retrofitted buildings would include dormitories, cafeterias, medical and dental clinics, recreation areas, and courtrooms.

Under this model, ICE would own the buildings directly and hire contractors to manage daily operations. That marks a big shift from the current system, where private companies own most of the facilities ICE uses.

The agency already bought warehouses in five states

ICE has already purchased warehouses in Arizona, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Georgia. Near El Paso, Texas, the agency spent nearly $123 million on three warehouses for a planned 8,500-bed facility.

A warehouse in Surprise, Ariz., cost about $70 million, and one in Williamsport, Md., ran about $102 million. Local officials in several of these areas said nobody told them about the purchases ahead of time.

Communities across the country push back hard

Opposition from local residents has blocked or stalled warehouse deals in at least five states. In Oklahoma City, the property owner backed out after Republican Mayor David Holt spoke out against the plan.

In Salt Lake City, the warehouse owner refused to sell after protests and a warning from the mayor about code violations.

Kansas City’s city council passed a moratorium on nonmunicipal detention facilities in a 12-1 vote, and the warehouse owner later declined to sell.

Even red areas resist the plans

The pushback crosses party lines. Sen. Roger Wicker, a Mississippi Republican, wrote to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem opposing a planned facility in Byhalia, Miss. He raised concerns about the small town’s ability to handle thousands of detainees.

In Surprise, Ariz., both Republican and Democratic residents spoke against the plan at a five-hour city council meeting.

Rep. Pat Ryan, a New York Democrat, collected 10,000 signatures against a proposed facility in Chester, a town of about 12,000.

ICE director tells senators the agency won’t pull back

Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons testified before the Senate Homeland Security Committee on Feb. 12, 2026.

Lyons told lawmakers that ICE tracks about 1.6 million people in the U.S. with final deportation orders, and that roughly 800,000 of them have criminal convictions according to ICE’s data.

Sen. Maggie Hassan, a New Hampshire Democrat, pressed Lyons to drop plans for a facility in Merrimack, N.H. Lyons said the agency would not back down.

ICE has also added about 12,000 new officers through a surge hiring effort.

DHS sent New Hampshire a report full of errors

DHS gave Gov. Ayotte an economic impact report for the proposed Merrimack, N.H., facility, but the document was riddled with mistakes. It referenced benefits to “the Oklahoma economy” instead of New Hampshire.

It also cited revenue from income taxes and state sales taxes, neither of which New Hampshire collects. Merrimack’s town manager said he spotted the errors right away.

Ayotte also disputed Lyons’ claim that DHS had briefed her on the Merrimack plans earlier, calling it “simply not true.”

Detention numbers have already surged under Trump

As of early February 2026, ICE held about 68,000 people in detention. That figure is roughly 74% higher than when Trump took office in January 2025.

The agency now runs about 212 detention centers, up from about 104 a year ago.

The largest facility in use sits in El Paso, Texas, and held fewer than 3,000 on average in early February. Only 21 current ICE facilities hold more than 1,000 people.

States and cities scramble to respond

ICE says the expanded facilities are needed to keep pace with arrests from its new officers. The agency says 70% of its arrests involve people with criminal charges or convictions.

Several state legislatures, including in New York, New Mexico, Massachusetts, and Delaware, have introduced bills to ban or restrict ICE detention centers.

Local governments face limits since federal projects are generally exempt from local zoning rules. Some communities have turned to moratoriums and pressure on property owners to block deals.

The law behind the plan funds far more than detention

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act set aside $45 billion for detention over four years.

It also included about $30 billion for ICE enforcement and deportation operations and roughly $46.5 billion for border wall construction.

The total $170 billion in immigration enforcement spending exceeds what all state and local governments spend on police each year, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.

ICE calls the plan a way to ensure safe and humane detention, while critics have raised concerns about the feasibility of converting warehouses.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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