The Trump administration has explored whether to use a Coast Guard facility on Staten Island to hold detained immigrants, a move that could expand the federal government’s detention capacity in New York as it seeks to escalate immigration roundups in the city.
Last week, officials from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency visited the Coast Guard base on Fort Wadsworth, a former military installation overlooking New York Bay, to assess the site, according to a person familiar with the visit, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations.
Two other people familiar with the discussions confirmed that ICE has considered the Staten Island facility.
It is unclear if ICE has determined whether the site is a suitable place to hold detainees or if the agency will proceed with the idea. Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, the parent agency of ICE, declined to comment.
But the search for more bed space in New York comes amid speculation that President Trump will widen his immigration crackdown in the city following the election of Zohran Mamdani, a Democrat and democratic socialist, as mayor.
The idea of using the Coast Guard site to hold migrants for short periods quickly provoked a response from Representative Nicole Malliotakis, a Republican from Staten Island, who said the base is ill-suited to hold detainees.
Her office said that she had shared her concerns with Trump officials based on the site’s strategic importance for Coast Guard operations and significance as a historical landmark, and that she believed that ICE was disinclined to proceed.
“The site is not suitable to house migrants,” Ms. Malliotakis said in a statement. “We’ve made this very clear, both publicly and privately, and we do not anticipate any such plans.”
The Coast Guard’s office in New York did not respond to requests for comment.
Most immigrants arrested by ICE in the city are processed at the agency’s office in Lower Manhattan, which has four short-term holding cells. Many are then transported to jails and detention facilities in New Jersey, upstate New York or Pennsylvania. There are no long-term ICE-run detention centers in New York City.
Creating more bed space in New York City would allow ICE to expand its ability to hold detainees in the city before moving them to the regional airports it uses to fly detainees in the Northeast to other facilities.
Fort Wadsworth could make for a convenient location.
The 226-acre expanse, where the Coast Guard and U.S. Park Police have housing and offices, is a drive of about 30 minutes to or from Newark Liberty International Airport and the Manhattan ICE offices at 26 Federal Plaza. Its location on federal land, in a Republican stronghold far from more densely populated areas, could minimize citizen opposition in New York, largely a liberal city. Fort Wadsworth is one of the oldest military sites in the United States and is run by the National Park Service.
But it remains unclear whether Fort Wadsworth, the Coast Guard’s largest operational field command on the East Coast, is a feasible venue to hold migrants. The vast green space is also a recreational area, heavily used by visitors who take to the hiking and biking trails that wind through old fortifications.
Ms. Malliotakis, the Republican congresswoman, in 2023 opposed using Fort Wadsworth to shelter migrants. The Biden administration and state and city officials had considered opening an emergency shelter there for thousands of migrants arriving in New York City.
During the past few months, New York’s political and civic leaders have quietly been mobilizing for the possibility that Mr. Trump may deploy the National Guard to New York, or launch a large immigration enforcement operation, as he has done in Chicago and Los Angeles.
Mr. Mamdani’s victory last week further fueled those preparations, amid speculation that Mr. Trump’s plans to use Mr. Mamdani as a political foil would lead him to target New York City.
On Tuesday, Mr. Mamdani said that he planned to call Mr. Trump before taking office in January, “because this is a relationship that will be critical to the success of the city.”
“I’ll say that I’m here to work for the benefit of everyone who calls the city home, and that wherever there is a possibility for working together toward that end, I’m ready,” Mr. Mamdani told WNBC-TV. “And if it’s to the expense of those New Yorkers, I will fight it.”
ICE has been steadily increasing its detention capacity in the New York region this year, even before Mr. Mamdani’s rise.
The agency struck deals to hold more than 100 detainees at the Metropolitan Detention Center, a federal prison in Brooklyn, and up to 50 for up to 72 hours at the Nassau County jail on Long Island. It also opened a 1,000-bed facility across the Hudson River in Newark, and has contracted with at least six county jails in upstate New York.
New York City hasn’t had a large immigration detention center since ICE announced the closing of its only immigration jail in the city in 2010, citing high operational costs.
The Varick Street Detention Facility once held as many as 250 immigrants in a federal office building above a post office in Greenwich Village, unbeknown to many New Yorkers.
Luis Ferré-Sadurní is a Times reporter covering immigration in the New York region.
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