ICE Is Expanding Its Detention Network

The network of Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention centers is sprawling rapidly. According to ICE data, the number of such facilities nearly doubled between 2024 and 2026, as 80 new centers were added in the fiscal year of 2025, before a further 23 were added as of December 26. At the end of last year, some 70,805 people were under ICE detention in the United States, marking a rise of over 70 percent since the same period one year before.

A new investigation by The Washington Post has found that the Trump administration is planning to buy warehouses in at least eight states to be used for detaining thousands of people. The Post writes that the Department of Homeland Security bought one of these warehouses already this month in Maryland for $102 million and a second warehouse in Arizona for $70 million. These plans have raised serious human rights concerns and have been met with major backlash, as people in local communities have rallied to prevent the plans, whether through gathering at council meetings or heading to the unconfirmed locations to document any ICE tours.

ICE has already been reopening closed prisons and facilities to use as detention centers. Many of these previously faced allegations of poor conditions, including in some cases a lack of clean water and a lack of medical care.