A private prison company has finalized an agreement to reopen an immigrant detention facility in Texas that previously housed families with children, as confirmed on Wednesday.
The Nashville-based company announced the contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the city of Dilley for the 2,400-bed South Texas Family Residential Center, located approximately 85 miles north of Laredo, Texas, near the Mexico border.
This facility was utilized during the administrations of both President Barack Obama and the first term of President Donald Trump. However, family detention was phased out by President Joe Biden in 2021, leading to the facility being idled in 2024.
“We do acknowledge that we anticipate housing families” at Dilley, a company spokesman stated.
In a statement, the company noted that the facility was specifically designed for ICE in 2014, providing an appropriate setting for family populations. The contract is set to remain in effect until at least March 2030.
ICE officials have yet to clarify who will be detained at Dilley and the timeline for the reopening.
The agency, which typically detains immigrants at privately operated facilities and local prisons, began this year with no dedicated facilities for families. Notably, families constituted about one-third of arrivals at the southern border last year.
The previous administration expanded migrant detention to military bases, including Guantanamo Bay Naval Station, while promising to increase deportations.
Private detention contractors, including CoreCivic, emphasize that they provide more cost-effective solutions than military options for various immigrant detention services, including transportation.
During the first Trump Administration, military bases were authorized for detaining immigrant children. Similarly, in 2014, the Obama Administration temporarily used military bases for this purpose while expanding privately operated family detention centers to accommodate the surge of Central American families crossing the border illegally.
