On February 13, a memorandum issued by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) outlined the agency’s plan for a massive permanent expansion of detention facilities across the United States involving tens of billions of dollars, thousands of new federal agents and the construction of “mega-centers” to hold human beings for months at a time.

The memo states that by the end of November 2026, the same month the midterm elections are scheduled to be held, the agency will be overseeing “eight large-scale detention centers and 16 processing sites, as well as the acquisition of 10 existing ‘turnkey’ facilities where ICE ERO [Enforcement and Removal Operations] already operates.”

While there is “no money” for social services, public healthcare, education or housing, ICE estimates $38.3 billion will be spent on the “Detention Reengineering Initiative.” The plan makes clear that despite the ending of “Operation Metro Surge” in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the US government plans to continue mass arrests and removals of those it deems “illegal” throughout 2026 and beyond.

The memo states that the “new model is designed to strategically increase bed capacity to 92,600 beds.” The increased detention space coincides with the hiring of “12,000” additional immigration Gestapo.

Making clear that this is not a temporary measure in response to a made-up “border crisis” but the expansion of a police state directed against the working class, regardless of immigration status, the memo emphasizes that the facilities, “will be built to handle the immediate surge capacity and sustained long-term operations, providing a unified, scalable solution that delivers continuity, safety, compliance, and control.”

It calls for “Regional Processing Centers” that will house “1,000 to 1,500” people for “3-7 days.” These centers are envisioned as “staging locations for transfers or removals.” The centerpiece of the fascist proposal are “Large-Scale Detention Facilities” capable of “housing 7,000 to 10,000 detainees for periods averaging less than 60 days. These sites will serve as the primary locations for international removals.”

The internal ICE memo outlining the construction of massive, long-term detention facilities is only one component of a far broader expansion of the immigration enforcement apparatus. As reported by Wired, federal records show that alongside the buildup of detention capacity, the federal government has carried out what the outlet describes as “a secret campaign to expand ICE’s physical presence across the US.”

The geographic scale of this expansion is vast. While the Wired report cites a focus on four states, California, Florida, Texas and Pennsylvania, it names a large group of cities targeted:

Birmingham, Alabama; Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers, Jacksonville, and Tampa, Florida; Des Moines, Iowa; Boise, Idaho; Louisville, Kentucky; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Grand Rapids, Michigan; St. Louis, Missouri; Raleigh, North Carolina; Long Island, New York; Columbus, Ohio; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Charleston and Columbia, South Carolina; Nashville, Tennessee; Richmond, Virginia; Spokane, Washington and Coeur d’Alene, Idaho; and Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

According to Wired, this campaign involves “more than 150 leases and office expansions” that “have or would place new facilities in nearly every state, many of them in or just outside of the country’s largest metropolitan areas.” The report notes that “in many cases, these facilities, which are to be used by street-level agents and ICE attorneys, are located near elementary schools, medical offices, places of worship, and other sensitive locations.”

Wired reports that the General Services Administration was asked by DHS “explicitly to disregard usual government lease procurement procedures and even hide lease listings due to ‘national security concerns’” in order to support immigration enforcement. The outlet notes that “since President Donald Trump took office in 2025, ICE has more than doubled in size,” with DHS claiming “22,000 officers and agents stationed around the country,” funded by “nearly $80 billion” under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Internal memoranda cited by Wired describe the expansion as justified by “unusual and compelling urgency,” with lease approvals continuing “through the government shutdown,” and the GSA instructed to “approve of all new lease housing determinations associated with ICE hiring surge,” regardless of cost.

As Trump’s mass deportation operation and the nationwide construction of a network of concentration camps continues, “border czar” Tom Homan appeared on national television to defend the administration, while once again touting the support immigration police have received from Democrats in Minnesota.

Appearing on Fox News Sunday, Homan boasted of the Trump administration’s enforcement results, saying: “Bottom line is President Trump sent me up there to deescalate, to get state and local cooperation, to stop being a ‘sanctuary state’ and to arrest illegal aliens with a focus on criminals. Over 4,000 arrests, done. Deescalation, done. Collaboration and cooperation with the prisons and the counties, done.”

On “Face the Nation,” Homan responded to Democratic calls for mild reforms—including demands to end racial profiling and the requirement of judicial warrants for entries into private homes—with a broader defense of ICE practices. Addressing the issue of agents wearing masks during operations, he said: “As far as the masks, look I don’t like the masks either but because threats against ICE officers are up over 1,500 percent… these men and women have to protect themselves… As far as identifying themselves, they all have placards that identify themselves as ICE, ERO, HSI, DEA, FBI, so they all have placards on them…”

Homan rejected many of the Democrats’ proposed limitations on ICE tactics, claiming, “Masks right now are for officer safety.”

On the issue of constitutional protections, Homan claimed that current immigration statutes allow agents to enter private residences without a judicial warrant. “That’s not what the federal law requires. Congress themselves wrote the Immigration and Nationality Act that gave power under an administrative warrant to arrest somebody and that’s what set up federal statutes... right now ICE is acting within the federal framework.”

Homan’s rejection of the Fourth Amendment comes as more evidence has emerged refuting official DHS accounts of immigration police violence. Last week federal prosecutors in Minneapolis moved to dismiss charges against two Venezuelan men, one of whom was shot by an ICE agent. Two of the ICE agents involved have been placed on leave amid a criminal investigation into possible untruthful testimony.

The prosecutor, Daniel N. Rosen, asked that a judge “dismiss charges against a man who was wounded in that shooting, as well as another man who had been accused of attacking the agent.” He wrote that “newly discovered evidence in this matter is materially inconsistent with the allegations” previously presented by federal officials both in charging documents and in testimony.

Judge Paul A. Magnuson subsequently dismissed the charges with prejudice, meaning they cannot be refiled.

The incident took place on January 14, 2026, when Julio C. Sosa-Celis was shot in the leg by an ICE agent in Minneapolis. Federal officials lied in their initial account and claimed that agents had been attacked by men with a broom or shovel. In reality, at least one agent shot into the house where Sosa-Celis was living along with his partner.

Body-camera footage released last week further exposes the falsity of Department of Homeland Security claims surrounding a 2025 shooting in Chicago, showing agents initiating contact, coordinating their actions, and opening fire within seconds. The video documents the moments leading up to the attempted killing of Marimar Martínez, a teacher’s assistant.

The footage begins with DHS agents driving in an SUV displaying an “Uber” sign. Once the camera is activated, one agent is heard saying, “do something bitch,” a remark directed at Martínez. Moments later, another agent declares, “All right it’s time to get aggressive and get the fuck out because they are trying to box us in.”

An agent then states, “We are going to make contact because we are boxed in.” At the time this statement is made, the SUV is driving normally down an open roadway and is not stopped, surrounded, or blocked by any vehicles. As the SUV continues moving freely, an agent holding an assault rifle says again, “We are boxed in.”

The video then shows the driver sharply turning the wheel to the left and deliberately ramming Martínez’s vehicle. Immediately after the collision, agents exit the SUV with guns drawn. Within six seconds of ramming her car, one agent fires seven shots at Martínez. She was struck by five bullets.

The footage further shows an agent holding an M-4 rifle continuing to point it at civilians in the vicinity while other agents call for backup. The video contradicts prior DHS claims that agents were trapped, under attack, or forced to use lethal force in self-defense. Instead, it shows agents verbally escalating the encounter, falsely claiming they were “boxed in,” initiating the collision themselves, and opening fire almost instantly.

The pattern of violence, deception, and impunity is further documented in reporting by The Intercept on the murder of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. The outlet reported that an EMT who witnessed the shooting attempted to provide first aid to Pretti after he was shot by federal agents, but was physically prevented from doing so by DHS personnel at the scene.

The EMT told The Intercept that it was clear to her that Prеtti had suffered serious injuries and needed immediate care. “I could tell the second that I laid eyes on him that he was horrifically injured,” she said, “I immediately said, ‘I’m an EMT! He has a brain injury! He has a serious brain injury! I need to help him right now.’”

However, she was physically restrained by a masked officer, even as she carried trauma supplies and insisted she could provide aid. “I was literally begging the agent who was holding me back to let me do CPR,” she recalled, “because I knew that if he wasn’t pulseless at that point already, he was going to become pulseless very, very soon.”

The deliberate blocking of medical care after a shooting echoes the fatal shooting of Renée Nicole Good. In both instances, trained medical personnel were prevented from providing emergency care to victims of immigration police violence while the federal agents did nothing themselves to render aid.

In response to the murderous and illegal actions of DHS agents, Democrats are calling for cosmetic “reforms” to ICE and CBP. DHS is currently in a “partial shutdown” after Republicans refused virtually all of the Democrats requests to “rein in” ICE.

This pretended opposition serves to permit the continued operation of Trump’s mass deportation operation, while allowing Democratic politicians to claim they are addressing public concerns. A growing majority of the public supports the abolition of ICE outright, but negotiations in the Senate and elsewhere have centered on modest limits—such as restrictions on roving patrols or mask-wearing—rather than abolishing the agency itself.