During Donald Trump’s first presidency, California tried and failed to ban new federal immigration detention centers from opening. As Trump returns to the Oval Office in January with pledges of mass deportations, the agency overseeing immigration enforcement has been scoping out locations for a new detention center — possibly near San Francisco.
As CalMatters’ Wendy Fry explains, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in August issued a request to identify facilities for additional detention bed space in Arizona, New Mexico, Washington, Oregon and California. The centers can be publicly or privately owned and operated; should hold from 850 to 950 beds; and be within a two-hour drive of some field offices, including the one in San Francisco.
ICE made the request two months after President Joe Biden issued an executive order that severely limited asylum protections, and called for deporting migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border outside designated entry points.
Some Democratic officials and immigration advocates worry that expanding detention centers will pave the way for mass deportations and increase the number of raids and families being separated. They also argue that detainees at existing ICE detention centers are subject to abuse, medical neglect and unsafe conditions.
Bree Bernwanger, senior staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California: “An expansion of ICE detention operations … is going to be part of a reign of terror on our communities the Trump administration is threatening.”
All six of California’s ICE detention facilities are run by for-profit companies, and hold a total of nearly 3,000 detainees — the third-largest population of detained immigrants in the country. In 2019, California passed a law to ban private immigration centers, but a federal appeals court ruled the state was overstepping into federal immigration enforcement and overturned the ban.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta says the state may not have the power to stop the possibility of a new facility. “The court determined that it was a federal issue,” he said.
Read more about ICE’s plans for a potential new detention center in Wendy’s story.
Speaking of Bonta and immigration, he announced Wednesday that his office issued an update to a 2018 guideline detailing recommendations public institutions should follow to limit participation in immigration enforcement activities while complying with California law.
The guidelines are used by courthouses, health care facilities, schools, public libraries and other places, and suggest policies such as prohibiting the disclosure of information that could reveal a person’s immigration status.
Bonta’s update comes as Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi, a Torrance Democrat, introduced a bill prohibiting schools and child care centers from allowing ICE officers to enter without a court order and approval from a district superintendent or center director.
