McALLEN, Texas (Border Report) — A recent report indicates that migrants detained and processed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are often held in overcrowded facilities that are operated by private entities.
The investigation by the nonprofit Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) shows that on the night of April 13, ICE had a national contractual capacity of 62,913 beds across 181 approved detention facilities. On that night, there were 48,056 migrants in custody, meaning that ICE was utilizing 76% of its available bed spaces.
However, the report highlighted that 45 of these 181 facilities were operating over their contractual limits: eight facilities were above capacity by at least 100 detainees; 24 facilities had 10 to 100 more detainees than their contract allowed, and the remaining 13 facilities exceeded their capacity by fewer than 10 people, according to TRAC’s findings released on Tuesday.
Thirty of the facilities with population counts exceeding capacity that night were county jails but only one county jail — in Brazil, Indiana — exceeded capacity by 100 detainees, the report says.
Thirteen facilities, or 29%, were operated by private contractors managed by CoreCivic, LaSalle Corrections, and Geo Group, among others, and they account for the majority of facilities that exceeded contractual capacity by at least 100 beds. And two facilities with populations exceeding capacity on April 13 were operated by federal agencies, TRAC says
The Karnes County Detention Facility, operated by the GEO Group in South Texas, is one of the facilities that exceeded contractual capacity during that April 13 snapshot date, TRAC says. In fact it had the third-most days operating over-capacity from October through mid-April, according to the report.
Several facilities operating in Texas were cited for operating over-capacity.
The Krome North Service Processing Center in Miami was cited having the most over-contractual capacity counts from October 2024 through mid-April, according to TRAC. Krome operated triple its capacity limit at least one night in Fiscal Year 2025, the report says.
Other over-capacity facilities include:
- Pine Prairie ICE Processing Center in Pine Prairie, Louisiana, operated by the GEO Group.
- Stewart Detention Center, Lumpkin, Georgia operated by Core Civic.
- Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, operated by LaSalle Corrections
- San Luis Regional Detention Center in San Luis, Arizona, operated by LaSalle Corrections
- The Clay County Justice Center in Brazil, Indiana, operated by the Clay County Sheriff’s Dept.
Sandra Sanchez can be reached at SSanchez@BorderReport.com.
