WASHINGTON\u00a0\u2014\u00a0The Department of Homeland Security has purchased two immigrant detention facilities in Adelanto for $950 million, according to the private prison corporation that sold them. <\/p>\n
The sale by the GEO Group, a Florida-based government contractor, follows a $1.5-billion sale<\/a> over the summer of two other California detention facilities by GEO\u2019s competitor, CoreCivic of Tennessee.<\/p>\n The sales bolster the Trump administration\u2019s goal of cementing its capacity to detain immigrants it seeks to deport and reflect efforts to avoid oversight from California and other states by placing the facilities under federal ownership, even though they would still be operated by private companies.<\/p>\n The most recent sale, announced Monday, includes the two buildings that make up the 1,940-bed Adelanto ICE Processing Center and the 704-bed Desert View Annex. <\/p>\n Homeland Security has said that California\u2019s laws, which increase oversight of immigration facilities, make federal ownership critical to ensure it retains the detention capacity needed on the West Coast. <\/p>\n A spokesperson, who did not provide their name in an emailed statement, said ICE is \u201censuring we have resources to carry out President Trump\u2019s mission.\u201d<\/p>\n Last week, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed more than 20 bills<\/a> aimed at pushing back against the Trump administration\u2019s immigration agenda. Among them are bills that will authorize the California attorney general to bring civil actions to protect detainees\u2019 constitutional rights, and require the disclosure of public records, such as 911 calls, from the facilities.<\/p>\n Homeland Security has taken steps to avoid those laws, including through the facility purchases. With companies including GEO Group facing what Chief Executive George C. Zoley called \u201cunwarranted litigation\u201d over allegedly unsafe conditions, federal ownership could become part of their defense strategy.<\/p>\n In total, the federal government has now spent nearly $3.2 billion on detention facility purchases, the majority of them in California. CoreCivic sold off two other facilities, in Minnesota and Kansas, in August. <\/p>\n The sales were made possible by an infusion last year of $45 billion for immigration detention from President Trump\u2019s One Big Beautiful Bill Act as the administration seeks to expand its immigrant detention capacity.<\/p>\n In its announcement<\/a>, GEO Group said it will continue managing daily operations at the facilities under the company\u2019s existing contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which is effective through Dec. 19, 2034. <\/p>\n The company said it is engaged in an \u201cactive process\u201d with Homeland Security for the potential sale of multiple other facilities. Those sales hinge on GEO Group\u2019s ability to continue managing those facilities under long-term contracts, the company wrote. <\/p>\n \u201cWe are pleased with the completion of these important asset sales to the U.S. federal government, and we look forward to continuing to provide high-quality secure support services under our existing long-term contracts with ICE,\u201d Zoley, the company\u2019s CEO, wrote in a news release. <\/p>\n \u201cWe are proud of our 40-year public-private partnership with ICE, and we stand ready to continue to assist the federal government in meeting its immigration enforcement priorities,\u201d Zoley added.<\/p>\n Reacting to the news, Rep. Norma Torres (D-Pomona) wrote on X that Congress must continue conducting oversight and hold ICE and GEO Group accountable for conditions in the facilities. <\/p>\n \u201cTaxpayers are being forced to spend $950 million to buy three aging detention facilities and then keep paying GEO Group to run them through 2034,\u201d she wrote. \u201cWe\u2019re paying hundreds of millions for the facilities and billions more to operate them, while ICE moves to limit oversight of unsafe conditions. Taxpayers shouldn\u2019t have to foot the bill twice for a broken, for-profit detention system.\u201d <\/p>\n During a shareholder call in August, Zoley said ICE was contemplating buying more than 10 facilities, and that number \u201ccould continue to grow.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cWe are pursuing a potential sale of the buildings, but we want to retain the business,\u201d he said on the call. \u201cWe consider ourselves primarily a support services operator, and will place particular importance on our ability to continue our support services at any facility sold to ICE.\u201d<\/p>\n GEO Group said it anticipates receiving $705 million in proceeds from the sales, after taxes and transaction fees. The company wrote that net proceeds will reduce the company\u2019s debt and facilitate the repurchase of company shares. <\/p>\n The facilities in Adelanto, about 60 miles northeast of Los Angeles, have been the subject of complaints, lawsuits and visits by members of Congress.<\/p>\n Immigrant rights groups filed a federal class-action lawsuit<\/a> against DHS this year alleging poor drinking water, food, sanitation and medical care at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center, and a federal judge ordered improvements<\/a>. <\/p>\n Four people have died at the facility since last year, according to Homeland Security records. The agency often says that detainees receive comprehensive medical care and that, for many, it\u2019s the best they\u2019ve ever had. <\/p>\n A mortality review by ICE investigators for Ismael Ayala-Uribe<\/a> found that medical staff at the facility made repeated failures and \u201cdeviated beyond safe limits of practice.\u201d ICE took down the records, but the investigative publication Project Salt Box downloaded and published them<\/a>.<\/p>\n Ayala-Uribe, 39, who had fallen ill at the facility, later suffered cardiac arrest at a hospital during a surgery related to a pelvic abscess in September 2025.<\/p>\n More detention space could be coming to California. Last month, Homeland Security signed a $1.2-billion construction contract to expand a federally owned facility in El Centro that ICE previously used but which GEO Group now operates for the U.S. Marshals Service, Project Salt Box first reported<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON\u00a0\u2014\u00a0The Department of Homeland Security has purchased two immigrant detention facilities in Adelanto for $950 million, according to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":486215,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[59505,7273,7,9,8,1804,4017,53941,1512,5131,132875,2871,132750,190032,5589,190031,190033],"class_list":["post-486214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-ability","tag-august","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-company","tag-contract","tag-corecivic","tag-facility","tag-federal-government","tag-geo-group","tag-ice","tag-immigrant-detention-facility","tag-other-facility","tag-sale","tag-support-service","tag-zoley"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486214","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=486214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486214\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/486215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=486214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=486214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=486214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}