ICE launches $38.3 billion detention growth for deportations

[ad_1] NEW Now you can take heed to Fox Information articles!

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is planning to spice up migrant detention capability to 92,600 beds as a part of a nationwide deportation push, in response to an inner company memo.

The memo, dated Feb. 13, 2026, lays out a sweeping overhaul designed to help what ICE describes as the flexibility to "effectuate mass deportations," together with eight mega-centers able to housing as much as 10,000 detainees every and slated to be totally operational by Nov. 30, 2026. The memo states that the initiative can be funded by way of congressional allocations beneath the "One Huge Lovely Invoice Act."

Past the mega-centers, the plan requires 16 regional processing websites constructed to carry between 1,000 and 1,500 detainees for brief stays of three to seven days, in addition to the acquisition of 10 current "turnkey" services the place ICE Enforcement and Removing Operations already operates. The brand new mannequin goals to consolidate current contracts whereas centralizing detention operations nationwide.

NEW DEM PROPOSAL WOULD RESTRICT ICE'S KEY TOOL TO DETAIN CRIMINAL ILLEGAL ALIENS

<source media="(min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1023px)" srcset="https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2026/02/672/378/ice-warehouse-social-circle-georgia-detention-facility-1.jpg?ve=1&tl=1, https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2026/02/1344/756/ice-warehouse-social-circle-georgia-detention-facility-1.jpg?ve=1&tl=1 2x" height="378" width="672"><source media="(min-width: 1024px) and (max-width: 1279px)" srcset="https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2026/02/931/523/ice-warehouse-social-circle-georgia-detention-facility-1.jpg?ve=1&tl=1, https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2026/02/1862/1046/ice-warehouse-social-circle-georgia-detention-facility-1.jpg?ve=1&tl=1 2x" height="523" width="931"> An aerial view exhibits a warehouse in Social Circle, Georgia, that was lately bought by Immigration and Customs Enforcement for potential use as a detention facility, in response to reporting. (Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Photos)

The doc states that ICE has added 12,000 new legislation enforcement officers by way of a surge hiring effort and says expanded detention area can be a needed downstream requirement to maintain an anticipated spike in enforcement operations and arrests in 2026.

The memo describes the community as ICE’s "long-term detention resolution," emphasizing standardized facility design and scalable infrastructure constructed to deal with each speedy surge capability and sustained operations.

The newly launched doc comes as ICE has quietly bought at the very least seven warehouses — some exceeding 1 million sq. toes in latest weeks across Arizona , Georgia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Texas, in response to The Related Press.

CONGRESS UNVEILS $1.2T SPENDING BILL AS PROGRESSIVE REVOLT BREWS OVER ICE FUNDING

Performing Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Todd Lyons testifies throughout a Home Homeland Safety Committee listening to on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 10, 2026. (Samuel Corum/Getty Photos)

Proposed warehouse purchases in six different cities fell by way of after sellers declined to maneuver ahead beneath strain from activists, in response to the report. Extra offers, together with in New York, are reportedly nearing completion.

Performing ICE Director Todd Lyons stated this week that there are about 1.6 million illegal aliens within the U.S. with last deportation orders, roughly half of whom have felony convictions.

Throughout testimony earlier than the Senate Homeland Safety and Governmental Affairs Committee on Thursday, Lyons stated, "What we're monitoring proper now could be about 1.6 million last [deportation] orders in america, with roughly 800,000 of these having felony convictions."

A person is detained by federal brokers throughout raids in Colony Ridge, Texas, in February 2025. (Raquel Natalicchio/Houston Chronicle by way of Getty Photos)

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

Lyons clarified that these deportation orders had been issued "by way of an immigration decide with the Division of Justice separate from Immigration Customs Enforcement," not by ICE or the Division of Homeland Safety.

He added that there are "16,840 last orders at massive within the state of Minnesota," a state that has turn out to be a flash level for resistance to immigration enforcement.

Border czar Tom Homan introduced a short lived drawdown of enforcement sources this week, citing the necessity to recalibrate operations as ICE scales arrests and detention capability nationwide.