The Trump administration is taking a new approach to securing immigration detention space in California, one that sidesteps the state’s long-running efforts to restrict such facilities: simply buying them outright.
The Department of Homeland Security recently completed a $1.5 billion purchase of two major detention sites from private prison operator CoreCivic — the Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego County and the California City Detention Facility in Kern County. Federal officials say the move is a direct answer to years of political pushback from Sacramento against ICE’s presence in the state.
“Unlike in states like Florida and Oklahoma, ICE can not rely on local state and county partners for detention space in California,” said ICE spokesman Jason Sweeney, adding that state lawmakers have repeatedly tried to outlaw or financially cripple private detention operators.
The friction goes back to Trump’s first term, when Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a 2019 law intended to phase out private, for-profit detention facilities in California by 2028. GEO Group and the federal government sued, and the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the ban in 2022, ruling it interfered with federal authority. Since then, state lawmakers have tried other tactics, including proposals to tax private detention centers heavily enough to make them unprofitable.
The purchases also arrive amid an ongoing legal battle between California Attorney General Rob Bonta and the federal government over a planned ICE facility near Gilroy, on farmland south of San Jose that state law has restricted to agricultural use since 1967. Bonta argues the project violates federal environmental law, and ICE agreed in July to pause construction while the lawsuit continues. Records show the General Services Administration signed a 20-year, $26.5 million lease for that site with a Beverly Hills-based landlord in 2025.
California officials have also used state inspection authority to scrutinize detention conditions. Bonta sent DHS a letter in December citing “dangerous and inadequate” conditions at the California City facility, and San Diego County health inspectors remain locked in a legal dispute with CoreCivic over access to Otay Mesa. Claire Trickler-McNulty, a former senior ICE official under the Biden administration, said federal ownership of the properties will likely shield them from those kinds of local inspections and zoning rules altogether.
The purchases mark a striking reversal from the sweeping expansion plan the administration unveiled in early 2026, which envisioned converting warehouses into massive detention complexes capable of holding up to 10,000 people apiece — facilities larger than any built in the U.S. since Japanese internment camps during World War II. That plan, known as the ICE Detention Re-engineering Initiative, has largely stalled amid lawsuits, unworkable timelines and a nationwide shortage of correctional and health care staff, according to Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council.
“At no point did anyone sit down to intelligently design the ‘Amazon Prime for human beings,'” Reichlin-Melnick said, referencing a comment from former acting ICE Director Todd Lyons, who once said he wanted deportations to run like an efficient shipping operation.
With billions in detention funding still needing to be spent before it expires, Reichlin-Melnick expects ICE to pursue more facility purchases like the ones in California.
The price tags on the two properties have raised eyebrows. County assessor records show Otay Mesa’s assessed value for the current tax year is $164.9 million, while the federal government paid $739.2 million — more than four times that figure. In Kern County, the California City site was assessed at $171.5 million but sold for $732.6 million.
A former senior ICE official, speaking on condition of anonymity, questioned whether the spending reflects an actual security need. “So, $1.5 billion just for the facilities and how many migrants are ever going to come in and out of there who are national security and public safety threats?” the official asked.
CoreCivic defended the pricing, saying it was determined through a federally required appraisal process meant to establish fair market value. Company spokesman Steven Owen also noted that California’s Proposition 13 limits how often commercial properties can be reassessed, meaning assessed values often lag far behind current market prices. “The two figures are not directly comparable,” Owen said.
Newsom’s office pushed back sharply. Spokesperson Anthony Martinez called the administration’s deportation strategy a “reckless and cruel misuse of taxpayer money,” accusing federal officials of funneling billions to contractors while avoiding scrutiny of detention conditions.
San Diego County Supervisor Paloma Aguirre drew a direct line between the sale and CoreCivic’s political giving, noting the company donated $500,000 to Trump’s inaugural committee. She described the resulting contract as a “billion-dollar taxpayer-funded windfall” that will help erase the company’s debt while allowing it to keep operating the facilities — treating detained immigrants, she said, as a revenue source rather than people. CoreCivic said it has donated to inaugural events under both Democratic and Republican administrations and that the appraisal process is independent of political contributions. The company expects to earn about $130 million annually running the California City facility, according to its SEC filings.
Looking ahead, Trickler-McNulty said a previously abandoned plan under former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to purchase two dozen warehouse-style facilities may offer clues to what current Secretary Markwayne Mullin’s agency will pursue next. Internal documents obtained by the Washington Post identified at least 10 “turnkey” facilities under consideration, including California City, along with sites in Texas and Oklahoma. Otay Mesa was not among them.
Immigration attorney R. Andrew Free said outright federal ownership eliminates financial risk for both the government and private prison operators, pointing to the steep stock declines CoreCivic and GEO Group suffered after California’s two largest public pension funds divested from the companies in 2019. Buying the properties outright, he said, insulates them from further divestment pressure and from the kind of environmental reviews that have derailed similar detention projects elsewhere.
“This is a big upfront cash award from the federal government,” Free said.
He added that local governments will likely lose most oversight authority over the facilities, though police, fire and coroner services will still be needed. Free said there are two ways to interpret the expansion — as a straightforward reward to a favored contractor, or as something more concerning.
“The cynical view is this definitely will be used to hold people who are not migrants,” Free said. “That it will be used to hold U.S. citizens.”
Original source: CalMatters
