California Democrats spent years trying to strangle ICE detention in their state. Trump's DHS just spent $1.5 billion to make sure that doesn't work.
President Donald Trump's Department of Homeland Security has purchased two of the largest ICE detention facilities in California, securing more than 4,500 detention beds in a state where Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has made blocking immigration enforcement a signature political cause.
CoreCivic, the nation's largest private prison and detention operator, announced Monday that DHS completed the purchase on July 2 of the 2,560-bed California City Detention Facility and the 1,994-bed Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego. The California City facility sold for $732.6 million, while Otay Mesa sold for $739.2 million.
Both facilities are expected to remain open under existing ICE management contracts with CoreCivic, though the company said those contract terms could change now that the federal government owns the buildings. The California City contract expires in August 2027. The Otay Mesa contract expires in December 2029 and includes a five-year extension option.
DHS did not just rent more space in California. It bought the buildings.
A DHS spokesperson said the purchase came through funding provided by Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which gave ICE the ability to expand detention space as the administration moves ahead with mass deportations.
The spokesperson pointed directly at California’s sanctuary-state politics:
“Unlike in states like Florida and Oklahoma, ICE can not rely on local state and county partners for detention space in California. The state’s sanctuary politicians continue to push legislation to outlaw or make private prisons financially infeasible.”
California Democrats have spent years trying to squeeze ICE detention operations through state law and local pressure. California tried to push private detention operators out of the state, but the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals blocked the 2020 law from being applied to federal immigration detention facilities. State leaders later turned to monitoring and investigation laws involving the California Department of Justice and local health authorities.
DHS answered with ownership.
“With federal ownership of these detention centers which are crucial to ICE’s detention network on the west coast ICE retains the detention capacity needed to arrest, detain, and remove illegal aliens,” the DHS spokesperson said.
That puts Newsom and California Democrats in a bind. Their sanctuary agenda depends on making immigration enforcement slower, harder, and more expensive. Trump’s DHS just moved two of the state’s largest detention facilities onto federal ground.
CoreCivic said the sale will bring the company about $1.1 billion in net proceeds after taxes and transaction expenses, which it plans to use largely for debt repayment.
CoreCivic President and CEO Patrick Swindle called the two facilities “mission-critical” for the company’s government partner:
“We are pleased with the sales of these two mission-critical facilities for the Company’s government partner, which demonstrates the value of the Company’s underlying real estate portfolio, while reflecting our role as a long-term, flexible solutions provider to government.”
CoreCivic also said it has been in discussions with ICE about the possible sale of additional detention facilities. The company cautioned that those talks remain in various stages and may not result in more sales.
California currently has eight ICE detention facilities with a combined capacity of nearly 9,000 people. These two are the largest.
Democrats and immigration activists are already complaining that federal ownership could limit state and local oversight. Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) said his visits to CoreCivic facilities have shown immigrants held in "unacceptable conditions" and vowed to keep "demanding transparency, accountability, and humane conditions." They spent years trying to choke off ICE detention space through state politics. DHS responded by buying the capacity outright.
Drama Queen Alex Padilla Says If He Were Outside a Home Depot, ICE Would Probably Detain Him
GEO Group CEO George Zoley, whose company is in similar discussions with ICE about selling facilities, explained the logic plainly during a May earnings call: Federal ownership means "more protections from unwarranted litigation" and limits how much states can interfere. "As some blue states are considering more active involvement in oversight of facilities," Zoley said, "I think the logical solution to much of that is federal ownership of the facilities."
The hypocrisy runs deeper than Sacramento. In Fresno, assistant U.S. attorney and city council candidate Rob Fuentes spent months publicly railing against ICE while quietly defending the federal government in immigration cases, including at least 124 cases in which he argued on ICE's behalf, according to a city council opponent. When fellow Democrats confronted him about it, Fuentes resigned, then claimed Trump "pushed him out." He was placed on administrative leave one day after his public criticisms of ICE became known. "I saved them the trouble and resigned," he said. It's a fitting snapshot of California's hypocritical anti-ICE politics: loud on the outside, complicit on the inside.
Newsom wanted California to keep fighting ICE from Sacramento. Trump just took the fight to the deed office.
Editor’s Note: Thanks to President Trump, illegal immigration into our great country has virtually stopped. Despite the radical left's lies, new legislation wasn't needed to secure our border, just a new president.
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