Update: ICE has switched contractors at Camp East Montana and said the facility will stay open: wapo.st/415gawR
I corrected my earlier story, which incorrectly said a document showed ICE was taking steps to close CEM. Actually, the document only said ICE planned to terminate contract.
They reincorporated in Tennessee shortly later (h/t @aaronschaffer.com)
A great honor to join @wbur.org's On Point with Meghna Chakrabarti yesterday to talk about who profits from ICE detention, alongside the astute @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social. Catch the whole conversation here: www.wbur.org/onpoint/2026...
As the Trump administration embarks on a $38 billion plan to convert industrial warehouses into large-scale holding centers, it is turning to relatively untested businesses to rapidly build and operate the facilities.
Local Republicans are getting slammed so hard on ICE warehouse plans that DHS is having to feed them talking points
@douglasmac.bsky.social www.washingtonpost.com/investigatio...
Camp East Montana was supposed to be the Trump administration's model for a new breed of large-scale, makeshift immigrant detention centers. Eight tumultuous months, 60 violations and three deaths later, ICE is preparing to close it. New from me: t.co/jOIIRAMJCo
ICE has been buying warehouses around the US, with plans to turn them into a network of processing & detention centers to hold migrants.
Our @pbsnews.org segment with @elizlanders.bsky.social @kylemidura.bsky.social and conversation with @douglasmac.bsky.social
www.pbs.org/newshour/sho...
Thank you to all for the kind notes. This week has been shattering. Somehow I’m still here. I’ll do my best for as long as I can.
Here’s how to help the ones we lost:
Hire them. They’re brilliant.
Donate:
US www.gofundme.com/f/standing-t...
International www.gofundme.com/f/support-fo...
Hundreds of journalists lost their jobs today for reasons I cannot comprehend. They include some of the best reporters, editors, photographers in the world and I am extremely grateful to have worked with them. Here’s one way to help them out in this difficult time www.gofundme.com/f/standing-t...
ICE just bought warehouses for mega-detention centers in MD & AZ and is nearing deals in GA, MO, NY, NJ, FL.
Residents and local officials are pushing back, and scored wins this week in VA & OK. But it’s not clear this plan can be stopped. w/ Jonathan O'Connell. Gift link: wapo.st/49ZKA7W
This week, a man in ICE custody bravely went on the record telling me he witnessed guards choking another detainee to death -- an account supported by medical examiner findings. Now, DHS is trying to deport him and another one of my sources.
Gift link: wapo.st/4qR1T1U
Geraldo Lunas Campos died Jan. 3 after a struggle with ICE detention center staff. The medical examiner believes it's homicide. ICE is now saying he tried to kill himself. But an eyewitness claims Lunas Campos was handcuffed while guards choked him to death.
Gift link: wapo.st/49FW4NG
SCOOP from Douglas Macmillan
Medical examiner believes death of man in ICE custody was homicide, recording says
www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...
Breaking news: An employee of El Paso County’s Office of the Medical Examiner said it is likely to classify the death of Geraldo Lunas Campos at an ICE detention center as a homicide. A detainee says he witnessed Campos being choked to death by guards.
“I’m supportive of the president, but I don’t particularly want this."
My visit with a small town in Georgia that's gearing up to fight the Trump administration on a plan to convert a warehouse into an ICE detention center with capacity for 9k immigrant detainees.
Gift link--> wapo.st/4qhiZGi
Map of warehouses
ICE wants to hold 80,000 people in warehouses.
ICE's acting director in April: "We need to get better at treating this like a business ... Like Prime, but with human beings."
www.washingtonpost.com/business/202... @douglasmac.bsky.social
Read our story for more about the situation at Fort Bliss, where more than 1,400 people are being held despite these and other serious concerns about the conditions.
w/ @samueloakford.bsky.social, N. Kirkpatrick & @aaronschaffer.com www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...
Despite having a "dietician-approved" menu, people were being widely underfed. The facility planned to increase meal calories by 30%, but as of early Sept that had not happened yet, the ICE inspectors wrote.
Medical care was deficient:
💉 Medical charts left empty, health screenings never documented.
💊 One person was given psychotropic drugs but there was no record of them consenting to it.
😔 Another person was placed on suicide watch but there was no record of anyone watching them.
The facility lacked basic many policies and procedures required by ICE:
❌ No security plan
❌ No policies for helping the disabled
❌ No policy on strip searching
❌ No directions to guards on using lethal force, which inspectors called a "serious vulnerability"
Because it's an active construction site, only 1/4 planned recreation areas was built, so it had to be shared by 1200+ detainees. They each got 40 min recreation a few times a week. "This lack of recreation time is adding to the detainees' visible frustrations and unruliness" the inspectors wrote.
For weeks detainees were held virtually incommunicado. No phones, no visits with families, lawyers or ICE deportation officers to learn about their cases. Tablets used to make calls didn't work. "Most of them wanted to
know the status of their immigration case," inspectors wrote.
This month, ICE inspectors toured the giant new Fort Bliss tent camp for migrants, built in under two months.
They found 60 violations of federal detention standards, many of which directly impacted the safety of workers and detainees, we reported today in @washingtonpost.com
🧵-->
Explore ICE's planned facilities in your region or download the entire list of 125 new and expanded facilities using the handy table inside our story: wapo.st/45hE9fq
Other notable facilities slated to open:
-Puerto Rico's only large-scale ICE detention center
-Minnesota's only private prison
-California City facility will become largest ICE center in CA
-Irwin, a Georgia detention center closed after women alleged medical abuse
-Military bases in NJ & IN
Trump's ICE believes bigger is better. Number of detention centers over 1,000 beds:
Now: 29
End of year: 49
Photo: Ft. Bliss soft-sided detention site in Texas, expected to hold up to 5,000 migrants. (REUTERS/Paul Ratje)
One of the newly planned family centers for parents and children will be inside Reeves, a gigantic, 5,700-bed former federal prison known for understaffing, poor medical care and inmate rioting.
Reeves video by www.youtube.com/@zoukisconsu...
Trump plans to open at least two new family detention facilities, more than doubling the record for total family capacity set under the Obama and first Trump administrations.
ICE also plans to expand in states with few existing detention beds, including Oklahoma, Indiana, Minnesota, North Carolina and Tennessee.
Number of states that can hold over 1,000 ICE detainees:
Now: 14
End of year: 19
Four states now account for the majority of ICE’s detention space: Texas, Louisiana, California and Georgia. That will continue, with new facilities in Texas alone expected to double the state’s capacity to an incredible 38,000 beds by year-end.
