ICE\u2019s new \u201cprocessing centers,\u201d like the one it is eyeing in a massive warehouse in east Orlando, would each hold up to 1,500 immigrant detainees for as long as a week before they are transferred to other facilities or deported, according to an outline of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security\u2019s plan released by New Hampshire\u2019s governor.<\/p>\n
Homeland Security intends to spend more than $38 billion on eight large-scale detention centers, 16 \u201cprocessing centers\u201d and 10 existing privately run detention centers, according to the plan released by Gov. Kelly Ayotte on Thursday. Doing so would expand its bed space to 92,600 people.<\/p>\n
The agency expects to have all of them open by the end of November as part of the Trump administration\u2019s mass deportation initiative.<\/p>\n
While an Orlando facility isn\u2019t explicitly named in the documents, a facility at 8660 Transport Drive in Orlando was toured last month <\/a>by a senior ICE official and was listed in a spreadsheet obtained by the Orlando Sentinel<\/a> that showed 23 locations around the country considered as potential ICE processing and detention\u00a0centers.<\/p>\n The spreadsheet said the Transport Drive facility, with an estimated purchase price of about $99 million, would hold about 1,500 detainees.<\/p>\n The document released this week describes facilities that could hold 1,000 to 1,500 detainees as \u201cprocessing centers\u201d that will serve as \u201cstaging locations for transfers or removals.\u201d<\/p>\n So far, the Orlando building, a 429,000-square foot warehouse in the industrial east of Sunbridge Parkway, hasn\u2019t been purchased by the federal government. The real estate broker, the building owner and ICE have refused to comment on if, and when, such a deal will move forward, but the \u201cfor lease\u201d listing for the building has been removed from online real estate sites.<\/p>\n Though the warehouse, south of State Road 528, is huge, ICE plans other much larger facilities can house between 7,000 and 10,000 people for about 60 days, the document says.<\/p>\n The document was first reported by The Boston Globe.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cThese facilities will ensure the safe and humane civil detention of aliens in ICE custody, while helping ICE effectuate mass deportations,\u201d it reads.<\/p>\n The warehouses would provide food, clothing, bedding, recreation, medical care, legal access, law libraries and religious space, the document reads.<\/p>\n The collection of new ICE facilities will support the agency\u2019s mission and \u201cwill be built to handle the immediate surge capacity and sustained long-term operations, providing a unified, scalable solution,\u201d it adds.<\/p>\n The document\u2019s overview states that ICE reviewed fire protection, water supplies and wastewater and power systems at all of the sites. None need upgrades, it said, and, if they do in the future, that \u201cwill provide no adverse effect on the community and the surrounding properties for each facility identified.\u201d<\/p>\n Advocates and activists have decried the idea of an ICE detention facility in Orlando, and in a letter last week to Homeland Security Sec. Kristi Noem, two Central Florida Congressman, Maxwell Frost and Darren Soto, urged the Trump Administration to abandon the idea.<\/p>\n \u201cIn addition to opposing additional ICE enforcement efforts targeting non-criminals and family members, we are gravely concerned about opening an additional ICE detention facility at this location,\u201d the two Democrats wrote.<\/a><\/p>\n The building is not meant \u201cfor human residence,\u201d they said.\u00a0\u201cWe are especially concerned regarding the risks to human life and safety should such a structure be hit with natural disasters. Given the deplorable conditions at other ICE facilities, we find it increasingly difficult to believe that this facility would do more than propagate suffering for the people of Central Florida.\u201d<\/p>\n