President Trump’s plan to lock up illegal immigrants is kicking into high gear with shuttered prisons and detention centers reopening nationwide. The move, aimed at turbocharging deportations, has left woke activists clutching their pearls. Turns out, actions have consequences.
According to the Washington Examiner, the Trump administration is reviving old prisons and ICE facilities to house illegal immigrants, with two prison corporations and the Federal Bureau of Prisons prepping sites in nearly every corner of the country. This is part of what the Department of Homeland Security calls the “largest-ever” deportation operation, though it’s hit snags due to a shortage of detention space.
Trump even floated reopening Alcatraz to detain “America’s most ruthless and violent offenders,” a bold flex that’s got San Francisco’s latte liberals in a tizzy. The iconic island prison may not see action yet, but the signal is clear: no more kid gloves. The administration means business.
ICE documents, pried loose by the ACLU’s Freedom of Information Act request, reveal plans to reopen or expand detention centers in 10 states. Facilities like Golden State Annex in California and North Lake Correctional Center in Michigan are among those getting a second wind. Many were shuttered by Biden, who thought open borders were a personality trait.
California’s Golden State Annex and California City Correctional Center are back on the list, alongside Texas’s South Texas Family Residential Center and New Mexico’s Cibola County Correctional Center. These sites, some previously deemed unsafe by Biden’s team, are now critical to Trump’s deportation push. The irony of 'progressive' closures being reversed isn’t lost here. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told a House Appropriations Subcommittee on Tuesday that 60,000 more beds are needed to keep up with the operation. “We have the ability to go out and act quicker in this country, but need the space in which to hold them,” Noem said. It sounds like someone’s done the math, but the wake dreamers ignored it.
Local communities and immigrant rights groups are throwing tantrums over the reopenings. In Newark, New Jersey, GEO Group’s Delaney Hall facility, a 1,000-bed behemoth, reopened to jeers from Democrats. Newark’s Mayor Ras Baraka sued GEO Group, whining about missing permits, which the company coolly denied.
“Valid certificate of occupancy,” GEO Group’s Christopher Ferreira told the Guardian, swatting away Baraka’s claims like a pesky fly. Meanwhile, in California, the California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice (CCIJ) staged a protest in March against reopening Dublin’s Federal Correctional Institution. They think laws are optional.
“Today, survivors of staff sexual abuse at FCI Dublin, survivors of ICE detention, Japanese-American survivors of internment camps and over 500 community supporters protested to say NO to turning the notorios [sic] FCI Dublin prison into an ICE detention center,” CCIJ posted on X. Nice try, but conflating legal detention with internment camps is a stretch even for the outrage crowd.
The ACLU’s Eunice Cho called the expansion a “disastrous waste of billions of taxpayer dollars that will only line the coffers of the private prison industry.” She warned of a “dystopian” future, as if enforcing borders is the stuff of sci-fi nightmares. Sorry, Eunice, but most Americans prefer laws over chaos.
“The documents received provide important details regarding what we have long feared — a massive expansion of ICE detention facilities nationwide,” Cho added, clutching her pearls in a statement. Her fear of “immigrant neighbors” facing consequences ignores the inconvenient truth: illegal entry isn’t a neighborly handshake. It’s a crime.
ICE’s current $10 billion budget can’t cover the $45 billion needed for new facilities, security, and medical support over the next few years. Congress is mulling a $175 billion infusion over the next decade to bolster immigration enforcement. That’s a lot of taxpayer cash, but so is the cost of unchecked borders.
Earlier this spring, the Trump administration tapped private contractors to build new detention centers across the U.S. ICE’s request for proposals covers everything from beds to medical services, signaling a full-court press on illegal immigration. Critics call it profiteering; supporters call it getting the job done.
Facilities like Leavenworth’s Midwest Regional Reception Center, once flagged for understaffing and violence, are being repurposed despite their checkered past. A former guard’s testimony about its “violent environment” hasn’t slowed Trump’s team. If anything, it underscores the need for tougher enforcement, not less.
The deportation operation’s slow start proves one thing: you can’t enforce laws without the infrastructure to back it up. Trump’s prison reopening plan, while triggering the usual suspects, is a pragmatic step toward restoring order. Let the woke wail; the adults are back in charge.
