Private prison and detention contractor CoreCivic has reached an agreement with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to convert its 2,560-bed California City facility into the state’s newest and largest migrant detention center. The company received initial funding of $10 million with maximum funding of up to $31.2 million for a six-month period starting in April, during which the two parties will continue to negotiate a long-term agreement.
CoreCivic did not respond to questions about when they would begin housing detainees.
California leased the CoreCivic facility for use as a state prison from 2013 to March 2024, closing down operations as part of efforts to end private prisons and reduce the incarcerated population.
In 2019, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill that banned the use of private prisons and immigrant detention facilities. Just before it was set to take effect in 2020, private prison company GEO Group and the Trump administration sued the state. The bill’s fate was finally determined in 2023 when a federal court found it unconstitutional as applied to federal private detention contracts, arguing that it infringed on federal authority to enforce immigration laws.
The ban remained in place for private state prisons, so California closed all remaining private prisons including the facility in California City, making it available for federal use.
ICE is currently funded for 41,500 beds across approximately 130 detention facilities nationwide. The Department of Homeland Security has asked ICE to increase its detention capacity by 60,000 beds to total around 100,000 beds. Because of this urgent request, ICE has argued that the agency does not have time to complete a full competitive process and instead has entered into no-bid agreements with detention contractors to quickly fulfill this task.
California ranks third in total numbers of migrants held in detention with nearly 3,200 as of May 27. This, however, is well behind Texas with 12,500 and Louisiana with almost 7,300. The addition of the California City facility will increase the state’s capacity by 36%, bringing the count of available beds to 9,700.
When asked about efforts to increase detention space in California, Tom Homan, President Trump’s chief advisor on border policy, says that they are considering their options among several possible detention facilities. He emphasized that state efforts will not hinder their work. “The less detention space we have in California, the more action they take in not helping us with detention beds, then we’ll just simply move them out of state.”
Private enforcement, detention and removal companies have benefitted from the current environment. According to a recent financial statement, the number of ICE detainees at CoreCivic facilities nationwide has increased by over 2,000 in the first quarter of 2025. Chief Executive Damon Hininger told shareholders that due to the Trump administration’s policies, “We anticipate significant growth opportunities, perhaps the most significant growth in our company’s history over the next several years.”
The company has recently resumed operations at its 2,400-bed family detention facility in Dilley, Texas, after funding was terminated due to high costs in August 2024. In March, CoreCivic reached an agreement with ICE to reopen their 1,033-bed former prison in Leavenworth, Kan., as immigrant detention, though the city is working to prevent the company from moving forward without a city permit.
California City Mayor Marquette Hawkins acknowledges that the reopened facility will be an economic boost for the area and anticipates job openings for 150 support roles and 400 correctional officers. However, he notes there have been concerns raised from the majority minority community, where 40% of residents are Latino. In his opinion, “everyone should be treated fairly and given their due process.”
ICE detention centers have a history of mismanagement, abuse and allowing for unsafe and unsanitary conditions. Since 2023, The ACLU of Northern California has tracked 508 grievances in California facilities, though ICE claims that only 47 were founded. Their complaints included issues such as hazardous conditions, medical neglect and retaliation.
“This is exactly what we’ve been warning about,” said Brian Kaneda, deputy director of Californians United for a Responsible Budget, a statewide coalition of more than 100 organizations that support prison closures. “ICE is looking for cages and California’s shuttered prisons, still funded and fortified, are ideal targets unless Governor Newsom takes immediate action to close them for good.”
As the prison population continues to decline, the state has plans to close an additional prison by October 2026. CURB welcomes the closure announcement but notes that the state has yet to fully shut down recently closed prisons. The Deuel Vocational Institution, California Correctional Center and Chuckawalla Valley State Prison continue to be staffed and maintained, which the group argues leaves them vulnerable to federal takeover for use as immigration detention centers.
In addition to the new California City facility, four of the state’s seven immigration detention centers are located in former state prisons. All of them are privately operated.
“What is consistently missing from the narrative is the fact that the majority of facilities throughout our country are run by for-profit companies that have a business model around the detention of individuals,” says Hamid Yazdan Panah, executive director of the organization Immigrant Defense Advocates. “Why should we as a society be at the mercy of private corporations that seek to profit off of the detention of human beings?”
Panah describes the contracts between ICE and private prison as creating “islands” in California that exist in a “black hole” outside of normal state oversight. But he says there are ways to get some sunlight through. “There’s really a meaningful opportunity for state and local officials to actually demand certain minimum standards are observed in these facilities, and that does not in any way, shape or form, infringe on the execution of immigration laws in this country”
One opportunity to reveal what is happening in these facilities is through a 2017 law that requires the attorney general’s office to review and report on the conditions of confinement. In a statement about the findings of the fourth report released earlier this year, Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta says detention centers need to make “significant improvements” to comply with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s detention standards.
In 2024, the state passed Senate Bill 1132, which requires county or city inspection of health and sanitary conditions in private detention facilities. GEO Group filed a lawsuit against the state of California and the Kern County Public Health Department to challenge the law. The suit will likely be dismissed. The attorney representing the Kern County health department, Jeremy McNutt, said GEO Group’s concerns were unnecessary, and his client had no intentions of inspecting the facility.
On Tuesday, Mayor Hawkins, along with two other council members and a member of the community, was invited on a tour. CoreCivic representatives showed the group around the building and told them about plans for wraparound services as well as indoor and outdoor recreation activities. He left impressed with the professionalism of the CoreCivic team, and he even saw some members of the community, including a former council member, interviewing and going through the five-week training process to work at the facility.
Before running for office, he had a vision of the empty former prison becoming an academy for trade skills such as HVAC, welding or even Cal Fire training. CoreCivic considered his proposal but told him they wanted to wait for the outcome of the election to see what the political climate would bring. Trump’s victory and ICE’s expansion meant that his training academy didn’t come to fruition, but, after his tour, he thinks the new detention facility “is making a good thing out of a very complex situation.” However, he cautions that that could change and he promises that his “office is going to be looking at ways to have some oversight, regardless of what CoreCivic and the federal government do.”
Andrea Castillo contributed to this story.
