$85M ICE detention center remains mostly empty on taxpayers’ dime: Contractors, nonprofits ‘are the ones benefitting’

United States Customs and Immigration Enforcement recently extended its funding for a facility in California that functions as a detention center for illegal immigrants, according to the building’s owner.

Earlier this week, the GEO Group, a security company, reported that the federal government will continue to fund its 1,940-bed Adelanto ICE Processing Center. Due to a COVID-era court order, the center has remained mostly empty since 2020.

ICE will continue to use taxpayer dollars to keep the facility running at least through September 30, 2024.

'Deeply troubling waste of taxpayer resources.'

Despite California recently becoming one of the most trafficked southern border crossings, ICE is unable to fully utilize the $85 million-per-year detention center. While ICE funds space for 640 detainees, only a handful are currently being held at the facility, the New York Post reported.

In 2019, ICE entered into a 15-year contract with the GEO Group to run the facility. Shortly after the agreement was established, a judge issued a court order blocking the detention center from bringing in additional detainees in response to a lawsuit regarding the spread of COVID. As a result, the facility has been forced to continue to follow social distancing rules despite the expiration of the outdated guidelines.

According to KCAL-TV, in 2020, 81 of the 784 detainees at the detention center tested positive for COVID-19. United States District Judge Terry Hatter responded by requiring ICE to reduce the number of detainees in its facility.

ICE sources revealed to the Post that the agency is forced to fly illegal immigrants to other facilities.

“We have to fly people out of state for housing,” one source told the news outlet, noting that contractors and nonprofits “are the ones benefitting from this, while the taxpayers keep paying the bill.”

Another ICE source told the Post, “That’s taxpayer money, are you f**king kidding me?”

Jenny Burke, an ICE spokesperson, told the news outlet that the contract was extended to September to allow the agency “to realize potential relief from ongoing litigation that prevents full use of the facility.”

In October, U.S. Representative Jay Obernolte (R) sent a letter to ICE expressing his “strong support for fully utilizing” the processing center.

“I am deeply concerned about recent media reports that ICE is releasing illegal immigrants into communities across the U.S. using the justification of limited space in detention facilities,” he wrote. “I am particularly baffled by this situation because the Adelanto ICE Processing Center was specifically designed to house individuals in immigration detention for ICE and currently has the available capacity to house 1,932 additional detainees.”

“Even more perplexing is the fact that the COVID-19 national emergency, the primary justification used to limit the intake of new detainees at the Adelanto facility, was declared ended by President Joe Biden on May 11, 2023,” Obernolte added.

He called it “an unconscionable and deeply troubling waste of taxpayer resources.”

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