The Department of Homeland Security is advancing plans that could result in the largest expansion of immigrant detention in United States history, according to recent reporting detailing efforts to purchase and convert warehouses across the country into immigration jails while simultaneously relying on a massive Navy contracting mechanism to accelerate construction of additional detention facilities. Together, the initiatives point to a rapid buildup of detention capacity under the Trump administration, with limited public oversight and growing concern over safety, legality, and human rights.
At least seven warehouse sites currently being considered by DHS could each be used to imprison 7,500 people or more, with some nearing a capacity of 10,000. In total, 23 warehouse sites under review could hold as many as 80,000 people if converted into immigration jails, with the number potentially higher if safe living standards are not implemented. Eighteen states could be affected, including Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah, and Virginia.
The administration is expected to spend hundreds of millions of dollars collectively on the purchase of these buildings, with total costs likely reaching into the billions once conversion and construction expenses are included. If carried out as described, the plan would mark an unprecedented expansion of immigration detention infrastructure in the United States.
DHS has sought to downplay concerns about the nature of the facilities. In a post on X, the agency said the buildings it is purchasing “will not be warehouses—they will be well structured detention facilities meeting our regular detention standards.” Critics and experts cited in the reporting question whether those standards can realistically be met, particularly given the speed at which DHS appears prepared to begin using the sites.
Human rights organizations have long argued that “regular detention standards” in existing DHS facilities are themselves abusive. The Trump administration reopened a former state prison in Texas last year to detain immigrant families, including young children. Conditions in that prison were described as “horrible,” with reports that water and food contained contaminants that could make detainees sick. Experts have also warned that ensuring safety compliance in converted warehouses could be difficult, especially before Immigration and Customs Enforcement or Customs and Border Protection begin confining people inside. At least one warehouse under consideration is reportedly dangerous during hot weather.
The warehouse conversion plan unfolds amid an aggressive immigration crackdown that has drawn widespread criticism. Federal agents have carried out enforcement operations across the country that critics say have terrorized communities, detaining people with pending asylum cases or those set to receive green cards, often without regard for due process. U.S. citizens have also been detained in some cases. The White House has said it aims to deport 1 million people each year, a goal that would require a dramatic increase in detention capacity.
Some local governments are attempting to block the expansion. In Kansas City, the city council voted last month to approve a five-year moratorium banning any new detention facility unless it is owned by the city. The ordinance could be challenged by the Republican-controlled state legislature or by the White House under federal supremacy arguments. Despite those risks, city leaders say they intend to resist.
“I will use every tool at my disposal to fight this federally funded terrorist organization that is ICE,” said Kansas City Councilman Jonathan Duncan after the ordinance passed. “While today’s moratorium vote was a good first step to stopping this mass incarceration concentration camp from being built in our City, this fight is far from over. We will need to put public pressure on any business that thinks they can sell out our community for personal profit. That comes next.”
At the same time, DHS is relying on a military contracting pathway to accelerate the construction of additional detention facilities. Reporting from Migrant Insider shows that a Navy contract vehicle once valued at $10 billion has been expanded to a $55 billion ceiling to support President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda. The contract builds on earlier reporting by CNN, which found that DHS was funneling $10 billion through the Navy to facilitate the construction of detention centers more quickly.
The contract operates under the Worldwide Expeditionary Multiple Award Contract, a flexible system typically used to move military equipment to dangerous or remote locations. The funding has been repurposed for a project known as “TITUS,” an abbreviation for “Territorial Integrity of the United States.” Observers say the scale and domestic use of the contract is highly unusual.
“This $45 billion increase, published just weeks ago, converts the U.S. into a ‘geographic region’ for expeditionary military-style detention,” wrote Pablo Manríquez of Migrant Insider. “It signals a massive, long-term escalation in the government’s capacity to pay for detention and deportation logistics. In the world of federal contracting, it is the difference between a temporary surge and a permanent infrastructure.”
According to a source familiar with the project, the facilities funded through the Navy contract are expected to rely heavily on soft-sided tents and could house as many as 10,000 people each. States mentioned in connection with potential construction include Louisiana, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Utah, and Kansas.
Contract line items described in the reporting include closed tents likely intended for medical treatment, industrial-sized grills for food preparation, and extensive force protection equipment such as earth-filled defensive barriers, eight-foot-high CONEX box walls, and weather-resistant guard shacks. The contract also includes provisions for “Medical Waste Management,” including protocols for biohazard incinerators.
Epidemiologist and health economist Eric Feigl-Ding described those provisions as “extra chilling,” citing the inclusion of infrastructure meant to handle illness and death.
Manríquez said the contracting structure creates what he described as a nationwide “ghost network” of detention sites that can be activated rapidly. Because the Navy contract allows DHS to issue task orders with minimal delay, new facilities can be materialized quickly once locations are selected. “It means the infrastructure is currently a ‘ghost’ network that can be materialized anywhere in the U.S. the moment a site is picked,” he wrote.
Additional reporting from Bloomberg indicates that ICE has already used some of the expanded funding to purchase warehouses in nearly two dozen remote communities, each intended to house thousands of detainees. Bloomberg said the effort “could be the largest expansion of such detention capacity in U.S. history.”
The plans have sparked backlash even in Republican-leaning areas. Demonstrators have protested proposed warehouse conversions in New Hampshire, Utah, Texas, and Georgia. In mid-January, a planned contractor tour of a potential site in San Antonio was canceled after protesters arrived. In Salt Lake City, the Ritchie Group, a local family business that owns a warehouse identified by ICE as a future detention site, said it had “no plans to sell or lease the property in question to the federal government” after protesters targeted its offices.
In Maryland, opposition has also been visible. On Jan. 20, Senator Chris Van Hollen joined hundreds of protesters outside a warehouse in Hagerstown slated for conversion into a detention facility that would hold 1,500 people. He described the project as “one of the most obscene, one of the most inhumane, one of the most illegal operations being carried out by this Trump administration.”
As Democrats in Congress face pressure to block tens of billions of dollars in new funding for DHS and ICE during budget negotiations, advocates warn that once the infrastructure is built, it will be difficult to dismantle.
“If Congress does nothing, DHS will continue to thrive,” Manríquez said. “With three more years pre-funded, plus a U.S. Navy as a benefactor, Secretary Kristi Noem or any potential successor has the legal and financial runway to keep the business of creating ICE concentration camps overnight in American communities running long after any news cycle fades.”
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