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Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) plans to increase immigration detention capacity to 92,600 beds as part of a nationwide deportation drive, according to an internal agency memo.
The memo, dated February 13, 2026, outlines sweeping reforms designed to support what ICE describes as the ability to “conduct mass deportations,” including eight large facilities capable of housing up to 10,000 detainees each and scheduled to become fully operational by November 30, 2026 with congressional funding. appropriations under “One Big Good Bill.”
Beyond the major facilities, the plan calls for 16 regional processing sites designed to hold between 1,000 and 1,500 inmates with temporary accommodation for three to seven days, as well as the acquisition of 10 existing “turnkey” facilities where ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations already operate. The new model aims to consolidate existing contracts while consolidating prison operations across the country.
DEM’S NEW PROPOSAL WOULD DELETE ICE’S KEY TOOL TO CATCH ILLEGAL CRIMINAL VISITORS.
An aerial view shows a warehouse in Social Circle, Georgia, recently purchased by Immigration and Customs Enforcement for use as a detention facility, according to the report. (Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images)
The document says ICE has added 12,000 new law enforcement officers in a recruiting effort and says the expanded detention facility will be a necessary requirement to contain the expected chaos in law enforcement and arrests by 2026.
The memo describes the network as a “long-term containment solution” for ICE, emphasizing a state-of-the-art facility design and scalable infrastructure built to handle both rapid capacity and continuous operations.
The newly released document comes as ICE has quietly purchased at least seven storage facilities — some of more than a million square feet in recent weeks in Arizona, Georgia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Texas, according to the Associated Press.
CONGRESS DEALS WITH $1.2T SPENDING BILL AS PROGRESS CONTINUES AHEAD OF PAYING
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Acting Director Todd Lyons testifies during a House Homeland Security Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on Feb. 10, 2026. (Samuel Corum/Getty Images)
Proposed home purchases in six other cities failed after sellers refused to move forward under pressure from activists, according to the report. Additional deals, including in New York, are reportedly nearing completion.
ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons said this week there are about 1.6 million illegal aliens in the US with pending deportation orders, nearly half of whom have criminal convictions.
During testimony before the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Thursday, Lyons said, “What we’re after right now is probably 1.6 million cases. [deportation] in the United States, about 800,000 of those have criminal convictions.”
A man was arrested by federal agents during a raid in Colony Ridge, Texas, in February 2025. (Raquel Natalicchio/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images)
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Lyons clarified that those deportation orders were issued by “an immigration judge and the Department of Justice separate from Immigration Customs Enforcement,” not ICE or the Department of Homeland Security.
He added that “there are 16,840 final orders in all in the state of Minnesota,” a state that has become a hotbed of resistance to immigration enforcement.
Border Patrol Chief Tom Homan announced a temporary reduction in resources this week, citing the need to retool operations as ICE scales up arrest and detention capabilities across the country.
Fox News Digital’s Peter Pinedo and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
