The Department of Homeland Security has been buying up warehouses and industrial properties around the country as it works to increase the capacity of its detention centers.
The department’s U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement division intends to add some 20,000 beds to its detention centers, bringing the total to 92,600.
The move is part of the department’s new $38.3 billion detention model — one that has some landlords on board but also has seen vigorous pushback. Those who oppose the immigration crackdown and, specifically, the detention centers, have called out the centers’ inhumane conditions.
So far, ICE has snapped up just under $700 million worth of properties across at least nine transactions to turn into detention megacenters, according to an analysis by The Real Deal of media reports and PropertyShark data. ICE had attempted to acquire another seven buildings, but those transactions fell through.
ICE also plans to invest in 16 smaller centers that will house up to 1,500 detainees for stays of less than a week. These centers are where detainees will be processed to then be transferred to the megacenters, where they may stay “for periods averaging less than 60 days.”
The priciest megacenter deal was in Social Circle, Georgia, roughly an hour outside of Atlanta. Industrial developer PNK Group, which was founded in Russia, sold a newly built, 1 million-square-foot industrial property at 1365 East Hightower Trail to ICE for $129 million. Local residents — about three-quarters of whom voted for Donald Trump — opposed the sale, citing concerns about straining utilities and loss of tax revenue.
Of the nine transactions that have closed, just two were in blue states: Dalfen Industrial’s sale of 1879 Route 46 in Roxbury, New Jersey and RSE Capital Partners’ sale of 10900 Hopewell Road in Hagerstown, Maryland.
As for the canceled deals, three were in blue states: two in Minnesota, which has been home to some of the strongest anti-ICE protests in the country, and where ICE agents shot and killed two protest observers by ICE agents, and another in Virginia. The Real Deal will continue to track deals as they occur.