ICE Eyes Massive California Tent Facility Amid Space Constraints

Federal immigration authorities want to use a massive tent facility in 
California for deportation efforts as they exhaust detention space across 
the country, according to two people familiar with the plans.

The tent site, located outside of San Diego, has been operating as a 
temporary processing center since US Customs and Border Protection opened 
the 130,786-square-foot location in 2023. With border crossings at the 
lowest levels in decades, CBP has begun shutting down all but the San 
Diego-area facility and one other site, the agency said in a statement 
Thursday.

Converting the California center is the latest sign that Immigration and 
Customs Enforcement, which handles detention and removal operations, is 
trying to keep pace with President Donald Trump’s calls to arrest, detain 
and deport millions of migrants. So far, those efforts have been hindered 
in part by the agency’s detention space, which numbers fewer than 50,000 
beds. On Wednesday, a senior administration official told reporters that 
ICE had maxed out its detention capacity. The official said ICE has made 
about 33,000 arrests since Trump took office.

“The current immigration detention capacity they have, while extremely 
high already, is still insufficient to meet their goals," said Nayna Gupta 
of the American Immigration Council. Gupta, policy director for the 
immigration advocacy group, called the effort an “enormous waste of 
resources” and noted that the federal government can enforce civil 
immigration laws without detention.

Representatives for CBP, ICE and the Department of Homeland Security did 
not respond to requests for comment about the San Diego-area facility.

The takeover signals a new strategy for the Trump administration as it 
seeks to reach agreements with Latin American nations to take deportees 
from both their own countries and others. The administration has already 
had to at least temporarily walk back plans to house migrants in 
immigration detention at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, because those facilities 
would not meet ICE’s stricter requirements.

Trump is set to invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 in the coming days, 
using the law to fast-track deportations of certain migrants, including 
transfers to Guantanamo, CNN reported, citing multiple officials familiar 
with the situation.

CBP began rolling out temporary facilities during the Obama administration 
to grapple with surges in border crossings — primarily unaccompanied 
children and immigrant families. The practice continued during the first 
Trump administration and later under President Joe Biden. Deployed 
Resources, which operates the California site being transferred to ICE, 
has received CBP contracts worth more than $4.1 billion over the last five 
years.

But using a CBP facility raises other concerns: Its sites are meant to 
hold people for short stays, not weeks or longer, as is frequently the 
case with people in ICE custody.

In a press release announcing the opening in 2023, CBP described the San 
Diego-area tent facility as a climate-controlled, weatherproof site that 
can hold about 500 people and includes designated areas for eating, 
sleeping and personal hygiene.

Even though such CBP sites are a step up from traditional Border Patrol 
facilities, they’re still far from what ICE typically requires, said Scott 
Shuchart, a senior ICE official during the Biden administration. “You need 
recreation, you need quality food, you need access to medical. It’s very 
different from a field triage.”

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-03-13/san-diego-area-tent-
facility-set-to-be-converted-into-an-ice-detention-site