ICE Looks to Expand Detention Centers – Including in California

KQED's Forum

KQED

News, Politics, News Commentary

4.2 • 726 Ratings

🗓️ 4 March 2026

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

As recent court decisions make more people vulnerable to ICE detention, the Trump administration is purchasing massive warehouses that could detain upward of 5,000 people per site. Lawmakers and detainees describe existing ICE detention centers as grossly inadequate, with accounts of denied medical care, cruelty from guards and limited access to sunlight. Most immigrants detained by ICE have not committed a crime yet can be held for months or years. Now, resistance to these detention centers is growing nationwide – including in deeply red counties – and California activists and lawmakers are trying to prohibit ICE’s expansion here. We hear about the legal landscape and answer your questions. Guests: Ahilan Arulanantham, law professor and faculty co-director, Center for Immigration Law & Policy at UCLA School of Law; former legal director, ACLU of Southern California Matt Haney, District 17 representative, California State Assembly Wendy Fry, reporter covering poverty and inequality for the California Divide team, CalMatters Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:50.3	Welcome to Forum.
0:51.6	I'm Mina Kim.
0:53.0	California is home to seven ICE detention facilities run by
0:56.7	private prison companies, and the Department of Homeland Security is eyeing the state, among many
1:01.9	others, for its planned massive increase in detention capacity. After getting a boost from
1:07.1	federal courts, already DHS has bought several industrial warehouse sites across the country
1:12.5	and has proposed many more. But local pushback over concerns about a strain on resources or
1:18.3	conditions at existing ice attention centers or anti-ice protests is complicating DHS's efforts.
1:24.9	Joining me for a closer look, Wendy Fry, Cal CalMatters reporter based in San Diego and Mexico.
1:30.8	Wendy, welcome to Forum.
1:32.4	Hi, good morning, Mina.
1:33.7	Good morning.
1:34.5	So paint a picture for us of what's been happening nationally with ICE's efforts to buy these big industrial warehouses to turn into detention centers.
1:42.4	Sure.
	...

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