Trump Eyes Military Prisons to Expand Immigration Detention
Source: Newsweek
Published Jan 23, 2025 at 7:44 AM EST
President Donald Trump's plans to deport "millions and millions" of immigrants hinge on securing significant funding for detention facilities, including military prisons. With an estimated 11.7 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S., current Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) funding supports only about 41,000 detention beds.
The Trump administration has not disclosed how many more beds would be required or the overall cost.
Why It Matters
The push to expand detention infrastructure signals a major shift in U.S. immigration policy, with implications for human rights, federal spending, and the private prison industry. Critics argue that detaining undocumented immigrants on such a large scale risks creating a hyper-militarized system that could worsen safety and compliance issues within detention facilities.
The financial demands are enormous, with detention beds costing approximately $165 per day per adult. Additionally, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has estimated substantial costs for deportation logistics, including air transportation. The involvement of the military under Trump's emergency edict has sparked debate about its affect on national readiness.
Read more: https://www.newsweek.com/trump-eyes-military-prisons-expand-immigration-detention-2019444
3825-87867
(1,192 posts)that can support abortion have no problem with paying MUCH MORE to support prisons to house people who more than 90% of the time, help feed the same Americans who want them gone!
Makes sense in a hitlerian sort of way!
JohnnyRingo
(19,556 posts)... and hand a blank check for locking up brown people.
This sounds like the most republican thing I've heard so far today.
Lovie777
(15,942 posts)so many concentration camps, oh my. Also, SS, Medicare, and MediCal/Medicaid the working class pays for.
But it seems like taking away those duly paid for programs by the working class will be defer to camps that will in fact be hell holes.
Nazi 101.
Frank D. Lincoln
(866 posts)Trump couldn't care less about white undocumented immigrants.
kerouac2
(868 posts)And also said they would figure out a way to make them work off the cost in the fields picking crops. Kinda like slaves only not just kinda, actually slaves ...
Ray Bruns
(4,868 posts)Chakaconcarne
(2,737 posts)Pretty convenient cover for conditions and atrocities.
johnnyfins
(1,610 posts)and cameras readily available? They won't be able to hide anything at already existing sites. This isnt 1940. There is too much tech in the hands of everyday people.
Jacson6
(994 posts)Leavenworth is where convicted military prisoners are kept. They have local holding cells at military bases, but they only hold a few dozen people at the most.
speak easy
(11,066 posts)Juneboarder
(1,741 posts)Trump is rapidly moving us towards a fascist, authoritarian country. This will not be viewed well by most of the world, and this will most definitely not end well.
EarthFirst
(3,333 posts)
expect that figure to head north of $200 per day; and the quality of the facility and care to diminish drastically.
Theyll profit billions off the misery of TSFs immigration policies
AverageOldGuy
(2,366 posts)I'm aware of one military prison -- the prison at Ft Leavenworth, KS.
Other military bases have small stockades where incarcerated service members are held awaiting trial or transport to Leavenworth. But the idea that we have huge military prisons all over the place is simply not true.
Postal Grunt
(237 posts)As a resident of Leavenworth, KS who lives less than two miles from Ft Leavenworth, any moves to place detainees would be met with immense skepticism by local residents. Detainees wouldn't be placed in the military prison and building a detention facility would be difficult. Ft Leavenworth is home to the families of students at the Command and General Staff College located there and such construction would draw the attention of congresscritters. Unless the building site will takeover Sherman Army Air Field, there isn't much flat space to build a large detention area. If they did take over SAAF, they would have plan for the possibility of flooding from the nearby Missouri River. Then there's the problem of the access roads to SAAF. Much of the traffic would have to go through residential areas which have only two lane streets. Maybe there's another area that they could carve up for their purpose but it wouldn't be cheap and it wouldn't be fast. Perhaps the uninformed souls who would advocate using Ft Leavenworth should visit the actual location and inquire about the logistics involved before they stake their careers on such a decision.