Chapter 1: What is the current state of ICE's detention facility expansion plans?
In red states and blue states, in suburbs and cities and rural communities, officials from the Department of Homeland Security are scouting real estate, like outside Orlando, where a local reporter for WFTV was tipped off to a tour. Now you can see it's just a massive vacant warehouse. Around 1130, we saw several federal officials as well as contractors arrive here.
And in Kansas City, where KSHB 41 was on the scene. We had received this tip that ICE agents were going to be out here touring a facility. We didn't know where, but then we saw a bunch of cars out here in the parking lot. Immigration and Customs Enforcement wants to significantly expand its detention capacity to help support President Trump's mass deportation agenda.
Here is how White House border czar Tom Homan put it last year. With us hiring at a massive rate, more boots on the ground, we're arresting more criminals, which means we need more beds. It's not just criminals, though. For decades, administrations of both parties allowed many immigrants out on bond while their cases moved through the immigration court system.
If they had longstanding ties to the community and no criminal record, they were candidates for release. The Trump administration implemented a new policy last summer that mandates detention for virtually any immigrant arrested by ICE without legal status. That has meant the number of immigrants in ICE custody has soared from roughly 40,000 at the start of Trump's term to roughly 70,000 now.
and the push to build, expand, and retrofit more facilities to detain these immigrants has ignited fierce and often bipartisan opposition. A majority of these locations wouldn't pass for any other venue, even possibly for a homeless shelter. That is the Republican mayor of Columbia, South Carolina, Daniel Rickerman. Are they sanitary? Do they have the beds? Do they have Consider this.
To achieve his goal of mass deportations, Trump needs to build an infrastructure for mass detention. Communities across the country are saying they don't want to be part of it. From NPR, I'm Mary Louise Kelly. This is Ira Glass of This American Life. Do you know our show? Okay, well, either way, I'm going to tell you about it.
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President Trump's approval rating on immigration has steadily declined as voters have watched his mass deportation agenda and the backlash to it play out in America's streets. A recent Pew poll found that large-scale detention of immigrants is especially unpopular.
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Chapter 2: How are communities reacting to the proposed detention centers?
So what happens when an ICE detention center is planned to pop up in your backyard? NPR's Jasmine Garst has been looking into that, along with Kate Dorio with New Hampshire Public Radio. Welcome to you both. Hi. Hi. Thanks for having me. Jasmine, first to you. You have been spending time in a few towns where these warehouses are being turned into detention centers. Take us there.
Tell us what it looks like. Yeah, so one town I spent time in is Roxbury, New Jersey. Roxbury is a conservative town on the edge of Lake Musconet Cong, and it's very picturesque. And overlooking the town on a sort of cliff over the lake, there's this massive warehouse, which ISIS purchased to turn into a detention center with nearly 500,000 square feet.
So I drove up there for myself and I ended up talking to neighbors. I spoke to one young man, W. He's 22. The new detention center is like right across the street from his house. And he asked that we use only his first initial because he doesn't want retaliation from his new next door neighbor. He describes himself as a nature lover. And he says this construction is so invasive.
He's thinking of moving away. I walk out in the morning to large semi-trucks from my front porch. We just see the glowing lights. It's industrial hell. It is what I don't want to see in the future of America. And Mary Louise, this is something that we're seeing play out more and more in towns across the country.
Because what's happening is last year, Congress gave ICE facilities $45 billion over four years to expand attention. ICE is now projected this year to have 16 new facilities to hold protests. around 1,500 people each, and six other new large facilities to hold up to 10,000 people. And a lot of these are this, warehouses that are slated to be reconverted.
And tell me a little bit more about some of the concerns that people are raising, along with big trucks and glowing lights, as we just heard. And then on the flip side, I mean, I have to assume a new detention facility will bring new jobs to a town. Did you find anybody who likes all this? Yeah, there's a All kinds of concerns.
You know, there's the ethics of these centers and the conditions inside. You know, since October, we've had 24 deaths in ICE detention. And in the case of this town of Roxbury, there's just a huge concern over water resources and increased sewage. I should point out that I was unable to find anyone in this town who supported this.
They have a weekly Roxbury town hall meeting, and the mood has gotten really tense. Even though the town council says it's against this project, the people I spoke to said they feel their leaders aren't really doing enough. Here's one townsperson, Susanna Oliveri. She's a local, and here she is confronting the council.
Several real and valid suggestions have been made by people in this room, by concerned citizens, and all have been ignored. Instead, the vocal pro-ICE council members sitting here today are rolling out the red carpet at the ICE detention center. Are you guys even doing anything? Or are you just helping them unpack and carry in their boxes too? The mayor of Roxbury declined an interview.
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Chapter 3: What concerns do residents have about new detention facilities?
We make stories that hopefully pull you in at the beginning with funny moments and feelings and people in surprising situations, and then you just want to find out what is going to happen and cannot stop listening. That's right. I'm talking about stories that make you miss appointments. This American Life, wherever you get your podcasts.