ICE Seeking To Use Fresh Funds And Expand Capacity To 100,000 Beds By The End Of The Year

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is looking to more than double its holding capacity by the end of the year with fresh funds from the approval of President Donald Trump's "big, beautiful" tax cut and spending bill.

Concretely, The Wall Street Journal detailed that the goal is to take capacity from 40,000 to 100,000 beds by year-end. Most of them would come as large-scale tent facilities at military bases and ICE jails, including a 5,000-bed facility at Fort Bliss, Texas.

"ICE is pursuing all available options to expand bedspace capacity," a senior ICE official told Reuters.

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem said that five Republican-led states are in active discussions with the federal government to replicate Florida's recently opened migrant detention facility, known as "Alligator Alcatraz."

The facility, located on a remote airstrip in the Florida Everglades, was built in just over a week and is designed to hold up to 3,000 detainees. It has already opened and Democratic lawmakers have heavily criticized the conditions there.

Last week, Florida Democrats introduced legislation aimed at shutting down the center. Called the "No Cages in the Everglades Act" and led by Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, it seeks to prevent the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement from operating or funding the facility, as well as any other "immigration detention facility located within or adjacent to the Everglades ecosystem."

"Trump and Ron DeSantis have exploited legal ambiguity around this Everglades internment camp to avoid any scrutiny of abuses there," the lawmaker said in a statement.

The Miami Herald, however, noted that the bill is unlikely to be successful, considering Republicans control the Lower House.

Democratic lawmakers, toured the facility this past weekend. Built in just over a week on a remote airstrip in the Everglades, is designed to hold up to 3,000 detainees as part of a broader push by state and federal officials to expand immigration enforcement.

"There are really disturbing, vile conditions and this place needs to be shut the hell down," said Rep. Wasserman Schultz. She was quoted by CNN saying "they are essentially packed into cages, wall-to-wall humans, 32 detainees per cage."