Immigration and Customs Enforcement is preparing for a $45 billion expansion of detention facilities to meet high arrest quotas, according to a new report.
The Trump administration recently ramped up ICE quotas to 3,000 arrests per day, from 1,000. The increase in ICE raids across the country and the new places agents are targeting to find and detain immigrants in the country illegally have sparked mass protests in Los Angeles and other major cities.
With the increase in arrests comes the issue of housing immigrants and, according to a Bloomberg report published Friday, Trump officials are looking to tent companies, private prison operators and disaster-relief providers for a “massive expansion” of immigration detention facilities.
Last month, ICE found 41 firms to bid for business under its planned expansion, Bloomberg reports. Of those firms, at least nine have advertised “soft-sided” facilities, which are temporary structures previously used to help ICE process immigrants along the southern border.
The $45 billion ICE would use to fund the facilities is included in Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” which has passed the House but still needs to be approved by the Senate and signed by the president.
It’s been a week since anti-ICE protests erupted in LA following immigration raids at multiple locations. At the heart of the raids is White House aide and anti-immigration hardliner Stephen Miller, according to multiple reports.
In late May, Bloomberg reported, citing a person familiar with the matter, that the ICE arrest quota increase was delivered at a meeting led by Miller and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
Miller reportedly told federal agents to “just go out there and arrest illegal aliens,” according to people familiar with the meeting who spoke to The Wall Street Journal.
Instead of creating a list of immigrants suspected of being in the U.S. illegally, Miller said agents would target Home Depots and 7-Eleven convenience stores, the Journal reported in an article published Monday.
LA has been a flashpoint in the fight between the Trump administration and Americans against his mass deportation efforts.
In response to the growing protests, which have mostly been peaceful, the president deployed thousands of National Guard troops and 700 Marines in the city.
The move was unprecedented and sparked backlash from California officials.
California Governor Gavin Newsom sued the Trump administration to stop the military deployment, and a judge ordered Trump to return control of the National Guard to Newsom. But Trump officials appealed, leading an appeals court to pause the order and set a hearing on the matter for Tuesday.
