DUBLIN, CA – President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown may lead to a migrant detention center at the defunct Federal Correctional Institution-Dublin women’s prison, a facility famous for a “rape club” that terrorized inmates for years, according to Jakob Rodgers from Bay Area News Group last week.
Rodgers reports, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents were seen assessing the closed prison last Thursday and Friday.
Rodgers notes this revelation comes only two months after the Federal Bureau of Prisons permanently shut down FCI Dublin because of “years of sexual abuse, retaliation, and poor physical and mental health care led to scores of lawsuits and the unprecedented appointment of an independent monitor.”
According to Rodgers, the potential reopening of the prison has brought up opposition from the prison union and migrant rights advocates, who called the plan “disheartening” and “horrifying.”
Rodgers, citing Susan Beaty, an attorney with the California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice, denounced the idea, stating, “The idea that ICE would house people in a facility that another branch of government has acknowledged is not safe is absurd.”
Rodgers noted concerns about the state of the prison, quoting Kendra Drysdale, a former inmate and advocate with the California Coalition for Women Prisoners who condemned the decision, charging, “Reopening the prison—where black mold and asbestos were quite literally making people sick—and locking up non-citizens there would be deeply cruel.”
Rodgers notes Kendra Drysdale also stated, “ICE detention centers are notorious for the very same forms of abuse.”
Rodgers, citing John Kostelnik, a federal prison union leader, reported that since Trump took office last month, federal prisons in Georgia, Pennsylvania, Florida, New Hampshire and Kansas have already been repurposed to house detained migrants.
Kostelnik added, “We’re not Homeland Security—we’re the branch of the Department of Justice. It requires different resources, different procedures, and policies. And when you intertwine those, it truly creates chaos.”
Rodgers states local officials have also voiced concerns over the lack of transparency, quoting Dublin Mayor Sherry Hu as commenting, “Regardless of the facility’s future use, we hope the federal government handles the transition smoothly and in a way that does not negatively impact the community.”
According to Rodgers, ICE has not confirmed whether FCI Dublin will be used for migrant detention.
Rodgers shared that an ICE spokesperson stated, “ICE is exploring all options to meet its current and future detention requirements” amid “a significant number of criminal arrests.”
