Border czar Tom Homan will soon get at least some of the “bed space” he desperately needs for illegal aliens scheduled for deportation, thanks to a revitalized partnership between ICE and a private company.
In just the last month alone, the GEO Group has announced that it will reopen two shuttered facilities and revamp a third facility for the “exclusive use” of ICE. Altogether, these three facilities will provide more than 4,000 beds for detainees.
‘The location near an international airport streamlines logistics and helps facilitate the timely processing of individuals in our custody as we pursue President Trump’s mandate.’
Back in February, ICE confirmed that the Delaney Hall Facility in Newark, New Jersey, would be reopened for federal immigration processing.
“The location near an international airport streamlines logistics and helps facilitate the timely processing of individuals in our custody as we pursue President Trump’s mandate to arrest, detain, and remove illegal aliens from our communities,” said a statement from then-acting ICE Director Caleb Vitello.
On Thursday, GEO announced that the North Lake Correctional Facility in Baldwin, Michigan, would likewise open its doors to immigration detainees once again. Built 26 years ago, North Lake was a designated federal immigration center during President Donald Trump’s first term. However, it closed in 2022 when the Biden administration canceled all federal contracts with private, for-profit prisons.
In his statement, GEO executive chairman George Zoley hinted that North Lake and its 1,800 beds will detain illegal aliens headed for deportation. “We expect that our company-owned North Lake Facility in Michigan will play an important role in helping meet the need for increased federal immigration processing center bed space,” Zoley said. “… We stand ready to continue to help the federal government meet its expanded immigration enforcement priorities.”
The facility will provide inmates “security, maintenance, and food services, as well as access to recreational amenities, medical care, and legal counsel,” the GEO press release said.
GEO indicated that North Lake would be back up and running “within a few months,” according to MLive.
While activist groups like the ACLU caterwaul over the reopening of a privately owned detention center, the only such facility in Michigan, local leaders told WOOD that they welcome the news. Lake County, Michigan, where Baldwin is located, is one of the poorest counties in the state, and North Lake once provided 300 jobs to the area.
Zoley likewise touted the long-standing partnership between GEO and ICE, which he said extends back 40 years. The company also works with governments in Australia, South Africa, and the United Kingdom to provide detention facilities and services.
The third GEO facility modified to suit the needs of ICE is the Karnes ICE Processing Center in Karnes, Texas. While the Karnes facility has lately housed only men, it is now transitioning into a “mixed” facility, GEO said.
‘We’re running out of beds in two weeks.’
Less than two weeks ago, border czar Tom Homan warned that ICE and other federal agencies were in dire need of more funding and bed space in order to facilitate the mass deportations Trump has promised.
“We’re running out of beds in two weeks. We’re at about 46,000 in custody now. We ought to be at 65,000 at this point in time. And when we run out of beds, we stop interior operations. When we arrest somebody, we got to have a bed to put them in for removal,” Homan told Fox Business on March 10.
“So Congress does need to get the funding we need so this administration can keep the promises made to the American people,” he continued, noting that enforcement has had already made tremendous progress.
“We’re doing great,” he claimed, noting that border crossings were “down 97%.”
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