The Department of Homeland Security is seeking contractors to convert large industrial warehouses into detention hubs that will see more than 80,000 migrants locked up at a time, according to a draft solicitation reviewed by the Washington Post.
The plan, reports the Post, would reshape the current system—where people are moved around to whichever facility has open beds—into a staged pipeline built around “processing sites” and massive “warehouses” intended to speed removals.
One senior ICE official has described the move as being similar to an Amazon Prime warehouse, but for people.
Under the proposal, the paper says, newly arrested detainees would spend weeks at intake locations before being transferred into one of seven large-scale facilities designed to hold 5,000 to 10,000 people each, with another 16 smaller sites holding up to 1,500 people apiece.
The largest facilities flagged in the document include a proposed 10,000-bed site in Stafford, Virginia, an industrial area about 40 miles south of Washington; a 9,500-bed facility planned for Hutchins, near Dallas; and a 9,000-bed center in Hammond, Louisiana, east of Baton Rouge, the Post reported.
The draft is not final, and the Post reported an internal email which said ICE planned to float it with private detention companies this week before issuing a formal bid request.
DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin told the outlet she “cannot confirm” the reporting and declined to answer questions about the plan.
The report comes as Donald Trump, 79, and his Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, 54—derided by critics as “ICE Barbie” for her camera-ready enforcement photo-ops and glam-heavy border branding—push for dramatically higher detention and removal capacity.
The Post reported that ICE held more than 68,000 people at the beginning of December, an agency record, and that ICE data shows 48 percent had no criminal convictions or pending charges. It also cited Trump’s “border czar” Tom Homan, 64, saying on X that the administration had deported more than 579,000 people in 2025.
However, Noem’s DHS has struggled to hit its own targets through “voluntary” departures—touting a $3,000 cash incentive tied to the CBP Home self-deportation app and facing scrutiny over the program’s costs and uptake.
Supporters argue the warehouse network would streamline deportation logistics. The draft solicitation, the Post reported, says the facilities will “maximize efficiency” and “accelerate the removal process.”
Acting ICE Director Todd M. Lyons added the administration needs to treat deportations “like a business,” the Post wrote—quoting him from a conference in April where he described an Amazon-like approach: “Like Prime, but with human beings.”
But the Post also noted practical and humanitarian concerns, given that warehouses are built for storage, not long-term habitation, and may lack ventilation, temperature control, plumbing, and sanitation for thousands of people.
Tania Wolf of the National Immigration Project told the Post: “It’s dehumanizing. You’re treating people, for lack of a better term, like cattle.”
The Daily Beast has contacted DHS for comment.
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