SURPRISE, Ariz. — A recently approved $45 billion budget increase for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is already taking shape in the form of a 400,000-square-foot immigration detention facility in Surprise, Arizona, raising new concerns about the rapid expansion of detention infrastructure under President Donald Trump’s administration.
As reported by Angélica César, a journalist with Human Rights Watch, “ICE has awarded a $313 million contract to GardaWorld Federal, the private contractor running ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ in Florida, to convert and operate an immigration prison with the capacity to detain up to 1,500 people.”
Expected to open in September 2026, the Surprise facility is one of many projected detention centers, with ICE continuing efforts to obtain warehouses nationwide for the purpose of immigrant detention.
The end goal, described in an article by Aaron Reichlin-Melnick with the American Immigration Council, is part of a larger “ICE Detention Reengineering Initiative,” which aims to obtain 34 warehouses and pre-existing prisons and jails to collectively possess the capacity to detain more than 100,000 individuals at any given time.
The U.S. government has a history of “endangering the lives of immigrants in its custody by holding them in facilities where disease, medical neglect, and physical abuse are rampant,” César reported. “Given this dismal track record, it is extremely difficult to believe that the Surprise warehouse will be converted into a humane facility whose conditions are safe and compatible with U.S. human rights obligations.”
Another article featured by Human Rights Watch detailed conditions inside immigration prisons, focusing on personal accounts by detainees held in three Florida facilities in 2025. “Some were detained shackled for prolonged periods on buses without food, water, or functioning toilets; there was extreme overcrowding in freezing holding cells where detainees were forced to sleep on cold concrete floors under constant fluorescent lighting; and many were denied access to basic hygiene and medical care,” the article stated. “They detained others in solitary confinement or transferred them without notice, disrupting legal representation.”
The Department of Homeland Security’s front page, an official government website, highlights the contrast of constructing multiple large-scale immigration prisons in a short period of time. An emboldened “MAKING AMERICA SAFE AGAIN” slogan appears on the cover page, accompanied by claims of “restoring the rule of law” and “creating safer communities.”
Yet critics argue that behind those public safety claims are barbed-wire fences and neglect-ridden detention centers. “Last year, at least 32 people died in ICE custody, and 2026 is already on track to be even worse, with 14 deaths reported since the beginning of the year,” César wrote.
The already grave issue of abuse and neglect will likely be exacerbated by the attempt to use warehouses — originally built for industrial use — to house thousands of individuals with medical and legal needs, raising concerns among advocates and local officials.
“The Surprise City Council, and any city where ICE has bought warehouse space, should do everything in their power to block these developments absent convincing, ironclad guarantees that the facilities will meet the basic standards of humane treatment ICE has habitually flouted,” César urged.
Continued developments in large-scale deportations and immigration detention can be traced back to President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda, one aspect of the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.” Along with allocating $45 billion to ICE for the sole purpose of detaining immigrant adults and families who are “non-U.S. nationals,” the bill also enables “criminal and gang checks for unaccompanied children who are 12 years of age or older,” and provides more than $3 billion to the U.S. Department of Justice to “counter drug trafficking,” prosecute immigration matters, and “provide compensation to states and localities for incarcerating certain non-U.S. national criminals,” among other provisions.
Whether city officials have the power to overrule a billion-dollar corporation and stop the project altogether is one question many observers have raised since Trump’s immigration crackdown. The broader question, critics argue, is what these developments mean for the future of American democracy.
Follow the Vanguard on Social Media – X, Instagram and Facebook. Subscribe the Vanguard News letters. To make a tax-deductible donation, please visit davisvanguard.org/donate or give directly through ActBlue. Your support will ensure that the vital work of the Vanguard continues.
