{"id":412219,"date":"2026-07-25T19:25:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T19:25:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/412219\/"},"modified":"2026-07-25T19:25:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T19:25:10","slug":"trumps-new-immigration-strategy-revealed-in-purchase-of-two-ice-detention-centers-in-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/412219\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump’s new immigration strategy revealed in purchase of two ICE detention centers in California"},"content":{"rendered":"

This story<\/a> was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up<\/a> for their newsletters.<\/p>\n

As California officials try to block immigration facilities across the state, the Trump administration is deploying a new strategy to secure detention capacity on the West Coast. It\u2019s buying up the real estate outright<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Department of Homeland Security\u2019s $1.5 billion purchase of the Otay Mesa Detention Center and the California City Detention Facility from the private prison company CoreCivic is a direct response to the state\u2019s political resistance<\/a> to new and existing ICE detention facilities, government officials said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Jason Sweeney said in a statement that California detention centers are \u201ccrucial to ICE\u2019s detention network on the West Coast.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cUnlike in states like Florida and Oklahoma, ICE can not rely on local state and county partners for detention space in California,\u201d Sweeney said. \u201cThe state\u2019s sanctuary politicians continue to push legislation to outlaw or make private prisons financially infeasible.\u201d<\/p>\n

The conflict dates to the last Trump administration, when California Democrats raced to adopt policies that would counter his first deportation push.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2019 signed a law<\/a> aiming to phase out all private for-profit prisons and immigration detention centers by 2028. Private prison operator GEO Group and the federal government sued, arguing the law violated the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution, which bars states from interfering with federal authority. They won, with the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in 2022 striking down the ban on privately run immigration detention facilities.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Since then, California lawmakers have pushed newer measures, such as imposing heavy taxes on private detention centers<\/a> to make them financially unviable.<\/p>\n

The federal government\u2019s purchase of CoreCivic properties comes in the middle of a showdown between California Attorney General Rob Bonta and the Trump administration over the controversial construction of new ICE offices near Gilroy, a former farm town south of San Jose. The city has grown to about 60,000 people and is ringed by garlic fields and vineyards in south Santa Clara County.<\/p>\n

The state argues the land has been designated exclusively for agricultural uses since 1967.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cICE\u2019s plans to construct a facility near Gilroy violate multiple federal laws,\u201d said Bonta, arguing ICE failed to examine the potential environmental consequences before beginning construction.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Federal contracting records<\/a> show in 2025 the General Services Administration leased the property for 20 years from Beverly Hills-based ECG 6 LLC for a total of $26.5 million.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The federal government agreed in July to pause construction<\/a> on the 26-acre site while the lawsuit proceeds<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

California officials are using another law dating to the first Trump administration to demand entry and inspect detention centers. Bonta sent a letter to the Department of Homeland Security in December<\/a> highlighting \u201cdangerous and inadequate living conditions\u201d at the California City Detention Facility. In San Diego County, local health inspectors are in a legal feud with CoreCivic over inspections<\/a> of the Otay Mesa center.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Selling the properties to the federal government likely will shield them from California health inspections, said Claire Trickler-McNulty, who was a senior ICE official in the Biden administration.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt gives them protections from state and local laws, especially from zoning and environmental requirements,\u201d Trickler-McNulty said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sales reveal a new strategy<\/p>\n

A year ago President Trump signed a spending bill with a huge windfall for immigration enforcement. It gave ICE $45 billion for detention capacity, and the administration had a plan to build new sites all over the country.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The purchases of Otay Mesa and California City mark a significant reversal, according to Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council.<\/p>\n

That plan, laid out in early 2026 in a document known as the ICE Detention Re-engineering Initiative<\/a>, centered on converting warehouses into mega-centers designed to hold 7,500 to 10,000 people \u2014 each larger than any correctional facility built in the U.S. since Japanese internment during World War II.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Reichlin-Melnick described the system as one that was never thoughtfully planned out. Todd Lyons, then-acting director of ICE, at the 2025 Border Security Expo in Phoenix said he wanted deportations to run \u201clike [Amazon] Prime, but with human beings.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAt no point did anyone sit down to intelligently design the \u2018Amazon Prime for human beings,\u201d Reichlin-Melnick said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Detention Re-engineering Initiative has largely collapsed, undone by lawsuits, an unrealistic timeline, and national shortages of correctional staff and prison healthcare workers, Reichlin-Melnick said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But that leaves billions of dollars that ICE needs to spend before the money expires.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe expect them to buy other facilities,\u201d said Reichlin-Melnick.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One former senior Department of Homeland Security official said conditions for immigrant detainees in ICE-owned facilities could be an improvement.<\/p>\n

\u201cICE taking over an actual facility is maybe better than warehouses or putting people in soft-sided facilities or the privately run facilities,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"AA detention officer waits outside the main entrance of the Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego on Feb. 20, 2026. Photo by Adriana Heldiz, CalMatters<\/p>\n

Prices eclipse assessment rolls<\/p>\n

County assessor records show the federal government paid a premium on the real estate. In San Diego County, the Otay Mesa property\u2019s assessed value for the current tax year is $164.9 million. DHS paid $739.2 million for it, or about 4.5 times the assessed value. In Kern County, the California City facility was assessed at $171.5 million; DHS paid $732.6 million or 4.3 times the figure.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A former senior ICE official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly, questioned whether the price tag matches the actual security need. \u201cSo, $1.5 billion just for the facilities and how many migrants are ever going to come in and out of there who are national security and public safety threats? The people that we actually do need to keep off the streets,\u201d the former official said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Gov. Newsom, Anthony Martinez, called the administration\u2019s deportation agenda a \u201creckless and cruel misuse of taxpayer money,\u201d and accused the federal government of pouring billions into contractors while avoiding transparency over conditions inside their facilities.\u00a0<\/p>\n

San Diego County Supervisor Paloma Aguirre connected the purchase directly to CoreCivic\u2019s political spending, noting the company\u2019s $500,000 donation to the Trump\u2019s inaugural committee. That preceded what she called a \u201cbillion-dollar taxpayer-funded windfall\u201d that will help erase the company\u2019s debt while letting it continue running the facilities. She said the arrangements treat detained immigrants as revenue streams rather than people.\u00a0<\/p>\n

CoreCivic said the \u201cvaluations for the facilities were established through the federal government\u2019s required appraisal process, which is designed to determine objective fair market value.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCoreCivic has contributed to presidential inaugural events across multiple administrations, including Democratic ones. The federal appraisal process is conducted independently of any political contribution,\u201d said Steven Owen, the vice president of communications for CoreCivic.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He added that under California law, the assessed values of the properties may differ greatly from their market value. He pointed to California\u2019s Proposition 13, which prohibits most property reassessments outside of sales.<\/p>\n

\u201cCalifornia\u2019s Prop. 13 limits annual increases in assessed value, which means assessed values for commercial properties can diverge significantly from current market value over time. The two figures are not directly comparable,\u201d said Owen.<\/p>\n

The company also expects to earn $130 million a year<\/a> to run the California City detention center, according to its filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.<\/p>\n

Will feds buy more detention centers?<\/p>\n

What\u2019s next? Former ICE official Trickler-McNulty said the abandoned plan<\/a> to buy 24 warehouses under former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem could hold some hints to the agency\u2019s plan under Secretary Markwayne Mullin.\u00a0<\/p>\n

An internal roadmap obtained last year<\/a> by the Washington Post reveals at least 10 \u201cturnkey\u201d facilities originally targeted under Noem.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They include the California City facility, but not Otay Mesa. The rest of the facilities are in Texas and Oklahoma.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The purchase of an immigration detention facility eliminates risk for both the private prison companies and the Trump administration\u2019s deportation program, said R. Andrew Free, an immigration lawyer and writer, pointing to divestments California\u2019s two biggest pension funds<\/a> made from CoreCivic and GEO Group in 2019 that contributed to the companies\u2019 spiraling liquidity crunch<\/a> and cratering stock prices five years ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If private prison investments become politically toxic on a national scale, Free said, federal purchases of the detention facilities safeguard the companies and the detention space itself from divestments and the kind of environmental reviews<\/a> that have ended similar projects in other states.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a big upfront cash award from the federal government,\u201d Free said.<\/p>\n

Local governments and the state will be essentially locked out of the facilities, but will still have some contact with the people inside, Free said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The detention centers are \u201cstill going to need police and fire, they\u2019re still going to need coroners,\u201d Free said, but noted that the majority of traditional inspections from the state are probably over.<\/p>\n

Free said there are two ways to look at ICE\u2019s detention expansion. One is, to him, optimistic: They\u2019re simply gifts from a friendly government to their valued contractors. The other is more cynical.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe cynical view is this definitely will be used to hold people who are not migrants,\u201d Free said. \u201cThat it will be used to hold U.S. citizens.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

CalMatters<\/a> is a nonpartisan and nonprofit news organization bringing Californians stories that probe, explain and explore solutions to quality of life issues while holding our leaders accountable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. As California officials try to block…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":378415,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[142632,86379,2871,14,74,76,75,1695],"class_list":["post-412219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-concentration-camps","tag-detention-centers","tag-ice","tag-immigration","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-trump-administration"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=412219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412219\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=412219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=412219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=412219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}