ICE is gearing up for the largest detention expansion in its history, planning to add capacity for 92,600 migrant beds nationwide as part of an unprecedented deportation push under the recently passed “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” that allocates $38.3 billion for the effort.
An internal ICE memo dated February 13, 2026, obtained by multiple news outlets, reveals ambitious plans to construct eight mega-detention centers across the country. Each facility would house up to 10,000 detainees and be fully operational by November 30, 2026, with the explicit purpose to “effectuate mass deportations,” according to the document.
Massive Infrastructure Expansion
The scale of the operation is staggering. Beyond the mega-centers, ICE plans to establish 16 regional processing sites capable of holding 1,000-1,500 detainees each for short 3-7 day stays. The agency is also working to acquire 10 existing “turnkey” facilities that can be quickly converted for detention purposes, as revealed in planning documents.
Real estate acquisitions are already underway. ICE has purchased at least seven warehouses exceeding one million square feet each in Arizona, Georgia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Texas. Deals in six other cities reportedly collapsed under activist pressure, though negotiations for New York facilities appear to be nearing completion, according to sources familiar with the matter.
Who’s going to staff this massive expansion? ICE has already added 12,000 new law enforcement officers through what it calls “surge hiring” to support the anticipated enforcement spike in 2026. The agency is reportedly still recruiting to meet its full staffing targets.
Targeting Millions
Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons framed the expansion as necessary to address a significant backlog of deportation cases. “What we’re tracking right now is about 1.6 million final [deportation] orders in the United States, with approximately 800,000 of those having criminal convictions,” Lyons stated in a recent briefing.
The geographic scope is nationwide. In Minnesota alone, there are “16,840 final orders at large,” according to agency figures.
Is this expansion happening all at once? Not quite. Border czar Tom Homan announced a temporary “drawdown” of enforcement resources to recalibrate operations as ICE scales its arrest and detention capabilities. This pause appears strategic rather than a shift in policy, allowing the agency to build capacity before ramping up operations to full scale.
The initiative represents the most aggressive implementation yet of the administration’s immigration enforcement agenda. Critics worry about humanitarian concerns and the logistics of detaining and processing such large numbers, while supporters argue the backlog of deportation orders necessitates this scale of response.
With November 2026 marked as the target for full operational capacity, the coming months will test whether ICE can build out this unprecedented detention infrastructure — and whether the political will remains to use it.
