Why Are We Building Massive Detention Capability Instead of

[snot]

augmenting the immigration judiciary, to speed up administration?

We're told we need these giant detention centers because there's such a huge backlog of detained immigrants not yet processed.

Meanwhile, deportations are actually significantly LOWER now than they were under Biden; see https://www.keranews.org/immigration/2026-03-16/trump-administration-deporting-fewer-mexicans-despite-ice-crackdown . Why the backlog?

One explanation may be that the real reason for the detention center expansion is to imprison immigrants long enough that they give up their rights to have their cases adjudicated; see https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/report/immigration-detention/ . Surely this is contrary to existing immigration law?

There are also worries that once the government can no longer fill the centers with immigrants, the centers will be used to imprison other people considered by the government to be problematic.

I want our so-called "journalists" to ask why we don't just expand the immigration processing capacity instead of spending billions on huge new detention centers!

[Irish_Dem]

1. Who benefits and how?

[leftstreet]

2. They'll never build them

By the time the commercial real estate industry has had it's fill of government money, there won't be enough left for the private contractors itching to cash in on construction, outfitting, and the purchase of warehouses filled with paper towel holders

It's a scam

[snot]

4. Wish I could believe more of what you say, but

(a) several warehoues have already been purchased, no-bid contracts for their conversion signed and delivered, and we've been insured that this is just the beginning;
(b) the CRE industry will never "have its fill". There's a ton of empty commercial space out there.
(c) the gov. can always print more money for private contractors (or war, or whatever), further devaluing the dollar and stoking inflation.

I agree, it's a scam, and a multi-layered one.

[usonian]

3. It's phase one.

It must not be completed and there must be no phase 2.