In a statement provided after the story\u2019s publication, a DHS spokesperson said the purchase of the two facilities was made possible by President Donald Trump\u2019s One Big Beautiful Bill (H.R. 1) that allowed ICE to expand detention space and fulfill the Trumps\u2019s promise of mass deportations.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cUnlike in states like Florida and Oklahoma, ICE can not rely on local state and county partners for detention space in California. The state\u2019s sanctuary politicians continue to push legislation to outlaw or make private prisons financially infeasible,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n The California City facility was sold for $732.6 million, while Otay Mesa was sold for $739.2 million.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have previously completed facility sales to government partners, and operating government-owned facilities is a well-established model within our business,\u201d Ryan Gustin, senior director of Public Affairs for CoreCivic, said in a statement.<\/p>\n Gustin said independent appraisers used the federal government\u2019s required appraisal process to assess the valuation of the facilities, which is designed to determine objective fair market value.<\/p>\n CoreCivic said it expects to continue to manage both facilities under the existing management contracts with ICE, though the contract terms could change to reflect the change in ownership. The $130 million management contract for the California City<\/a> facility expires in August 2027, and the management contract for the Otay Mesa facility expires in December 2029 with a five-year extension option.<\/p>\n \u201cHowever, the Company can provide no assurance that it will continue to manage these facilities in the future, or that the terms of the existing management agreements will remain the same,\u201d officials said in a statement.<\/p>\n The California City Immigration Processing Center opened in late August 2025 to much public protest. In its first months of operations, the company and city were sued over allegations it rushed the permitting process in violation of state law.<\/a> A separate lawsuit alleged inhumane conditions at the facility; a court-appointed external monitor was assigned to oversee medical care at the facility in March<\/a>.<\/p>\n The privately-operated prison opened in the late 1990s by Corrections Corporation of America, which later became known as CoreCivic. In the early 2010s, \u200bCoreCivic\u200b had a contract with the federal government to house federal detainees who awaited trial or had pending immigration cases. It later became a privately operated state prison known as the California City Correctional Facility, which closed in 2024 after the state ended its for-profit prison contracts.<\/p>\n On Tuesday, the California City Planning Commission is scheduled to hear an appeal to the city\u2019s approval of CoreCivic\u2019s site plan review and an administrative land use approval<\/a>, filed by the coalition group Dignity Not Detention. It\u2019s not immediately clear how the sale impacts Tuesday\u2019s hearing.<\/p>\n Otay Mesa, opened in 2015<\/a>, has also faced legal scrutiny in recent months. San Diego County filed a lawsuit in federal court in March alleging the Trump administration illegally blocked a public health inspection<\/a> of the facility, according to a report by CalMatters.<\/p>\n CoreCivic is also in discussions with ICE about the potential sale of additional detention facilities, company officials said.<\/p>\n \u201cWith federal ownership of these detention centers which are crucial to ICE\u2019s detention network on the west coast ICE retains the detention capacity needed to arrest, detain, and remove illegal aliens,\u201d the DHS spokesperson said.<\/p>\n This story was originally published July 6, 2026 at 12:47 PM.<\/p>\n
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