WEBVTT - Inside ICE’s Plan to Build Detention ‘Mega Centers’ 0:00:02.680 --> 0:00:07.560 Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. 0:00:10.080 --> 0:00:14.000 Questions are melting about what's happening inside Camp East Montana. 0:00:14.080 --> 0:00:17.160 Another person has died in immigration custody on the Fort 0:00:17.200 --> 0:00:21.280 Bliss Army base in Elpaso, Texas. It's the third death 0:00:21.360 --> 0:00:23.560 reported in just a month and a half at Camp 0:00:23.600 --> 0:00:27.240 East Montana. At Fort Bliss, which is the largest immigration 0:00:27.360 --> 0:00:32.120 detention facility in the US. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials 0:00:32.120 --> 0:00:35.559 said in a statement that Victor Manuel Diaz, an immigrant 0:00:35.560 --> 0:00:38.840 from Nicaragua, appears to have died by suicide. 0:00:39.360 --> 0:00:42.440 Advocates say the facility has proven to be inhumane and 0:00:42.600 --> 0:00:45.680 continue to call for it to be shut down. DHS 0:00:45.720 --> 0:00:49.000 has defended the facility, saying ICE makes everyone safety and 0:00:49.080 --> 0:00:50.280 health a top priority. 0:00:50.520 --> 0:00:53.080 Detention facilities like the one at Fort Bliss have been 0:00:53.159 --> 0:00:56.800 under scrutiny from human rights advocates as ICE detains record 0:00:56.920 --> 0:00:59.840 numbers of immigrants and ramps up enforcement tactics on the 0:01:00.120 --> 0:01:01.920 round in cities like Minneapolis. 0:01:02.480 --> 0:01:05.160 Anger and outrage in the streets of Minneapolis over the 0:01:05.160 --> 0:01:09.280 fatal shooting of a woman buying Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer. 0:01:09.240 --> 0:01:13.440 But as ICE continues, making arrests across the US even larger, 0:01:13.480 --> 0:01:17.080 facilities could be on the way. The agency currently has 0:01:17.120 --> 0:01:20.760 more than seventy thousand people in immigration attention, according to 0:01:20.800 --> 0:01:24.399 CBS News, and to meet the Trump administration's goals of 0:01:24.440 --> 0:01:28.119 deporting a million people a year, ICE is now looking 0:01:28.160 --> 0:01:32.280 to another kind of facility, large converted warehouses. 0:01:32.520 --> 0:01:35.759 Under previous administrations, many of the people who have been arrested, 0:01:35.840 --> 0:01:39.520 who are being arrested were not typically targets of immigration 0:01:40.160 --> 0:01:43.800 enforcement activity, and so now that this administration has decided 0:01:43.800 --> 0:01:47.880 to cast such a wide net that has required all 0:01:47.920 --> 0:01:50.920 of this jail space, which is quite expensive. 0:01:51.360 --> 0:01:55.000 Bloomberg reporters Folla A. Kenneby and Sophie Alexander have been 0:01:55.040 --> 0:01:58.520 following ISI's plans to expand its detention capacity. 0:01:58.960 --> 0:02:02.720 These are the facilities talking about now, large empty warehouses 0:02:02.960 --> 0:02:06.320 that contractors are looking to turn into jails. 0:02:07.560 --> 0:02:10.160 It's a shift that's backed by a new influx of 0:02:10.200 --> 0:02:13.840 funding for ICE. The agency got forty five billion dollars 0:02:13.840 --> 0:02:17.400 for detention and President trump so called Big Beautiful Bill 0:02:17.639 --> 0:02:21.480 just last year. But the rapid expansion that ICE is 0:02:21.520 --> 0:02:25.520 proposing has raised questions about which companies will be awarded 0:02:25.560 --> 0:02:29.200 contracts to convert those facilities and how they will manage them. 0:02:29.320 --> 0:02:33.000 The Department of Homeland Security and ICE didn't immediately respond 0:02:33.040 --> 0:02:34.200 to a request for comment. 0:02:34.720 --> 0:02:40.960 I mean, we're talking about detaining human beings in tents 0:02:41.080 --> 0:02:46.080 or in warehouses at a large scale. Again, like the 0:02:46.120 --> 0:02:48.400 sizes of these jails that they're proposing. In some of 0:02:48.480 --> 0:02:54.200 these warehouses, it's more beds than in entire county jail populations. 0:02:54.400 --> 0:02:58.280 So whenever you're doing something at this scale that's involving 0:02:58.360 --> 0:03:02.320 human beings, I think that there is a concern around safety. 0:03:08.600 --> 0:03:10.799 I'm Sarah Holder, and this is the Big Take from 0:03:10.840 --> 0:03:14.079 Bloomberg News Today. On the show, I talked to Bloomberg 0:03:14.080 --> 0:03:18.040 reporters Fola A. Kinneby and Sophie Alexander about ICE's push 0:03:18.160 --> 0:03:22.280 to expand its detention capacity, the lucrative government contracts that 0:03:22.320 --> 0:03:26.560 companies are vying for, and the mountain concerns around conditions 0:03:26.840 --> 0:03:34.880 for the people being detained in the streets of Minneapolis. 0:03:34.880 --> 0:03:38.040 Over the past few weeks, we've been seeing ICE's escalating 0:03:38.160 --> 0:03:41.160 arrest tactics on the ground, but you both have also 0:03:41.320 --> 0:03:46.600 been covering ICE's parallel efforts to open more detention facilities 0:03:46.640 --> 0:03:50.800 to meet the Trump administration's aggressive deportation goals. What has 0:03:50.800 --> 0:03:54.960 the administration been doing over the past year to expand 0:03:55.040 --> 0:03:56.360 its detention capacity? 0:03:56.960 --> 0:04:00.760 First of all, the administration has been trying to massively 0:04:01.560 --> 0:04:05.000 and in some ways it has massively expanded its ability 0:04:05.040 --> 0:04:10.280 to detain immigrants. The administration talk about plans to deport 0:04:10.480 --> 0:04:13.200 up to a million people a year, right, that's the 0:04:13.240 --> 0:04:13.840 goal at. 0:04:13.760 --> 0:04:15.080 The outset of twenty twenty five. 0:04:14.960 --> 0:04:16.360 At the outset of twenty twenty five. 0:04:17.080 --> 0:04:19.640 And to do that takes a lot of jail space, 0:04:19.680 --> 0:04:24.160 more jail space than ICE as an agency has ever had. Right, 0:04:24.800 --> 0:04:27.839 if you look back under Biden over his four year term, 0:04:28.320 --> 0:04:31.960 the immigration detention capacity never really exceeded or at his 0:04:32.080 --> 0:04:33.520 peak was thirty. 0:04:33.320 --> 0:04:35.640 Nine thousand people. Just over thirty nine thousand people. 0:04:36.160 --> 0:04:40.200 Almost immediately, the Trump administration, after taking office the second time, 0:04:40.640 --> 0:04:44.599 really pushed to massively expand its detention space. And so 0:04:45.920 --> 0:04:48.520 right now there are more than seventy thousand people in 0:04:48.600 --> 0:04:49.320 ICE custody. 0:04:49.440 --> 0:04:50.040 That's a record. 0:04:50.080 --> 0:04:52.800 And in order to house all those people, what did 0:04:52.800 --> 0:04:56.360 the administration have to go from detaining maybe forty thousand 0:04:56.360 --> 0:04:58.159 people to over seventy thousand people. 0:04:58.880 --> 0:05:03.120 First, they into these sort of methods that they had 0:05:03.200 --> 0:05:07.360 been used to working with private prison companies to look 0:05:07.440 --> 0:05:12.760 for unused jail space to find more beds for immigrants 0:05:12.760 --> 0:05:15.120 who have been detained. But after that that's. 0:05:14.839 --> 0:05:15.560 Just not enough. 0:05:15.680 --> 0:05:19.160 They're really desperate for more space. They claim that they 0:05:19.200 --> 0:05:22.640 need one hundred thousand beds to be able to meet 0:05:22.720 --> 0:05:26.760 their goals of detaining a million people a year, and 0:05:26.880 --> 0:05:31.039 so they had to pivot and look for other ways 0:05:31.120 --> 0:05:35.960 to build more detention, which is why they started using 0:05:36.160 --> 0:05:40.880 soft sided facilities or tents, and they started looking to 0:05:40.960 --> 0:05:42.440 build more tent camps. 0:05:42.839 --> 0:05:46.560 What have the conditions been like in these more temporary 0:05:46.600 --> 0:05:49.880 facilities that ICE has been erecting over the past year. 0:05:50.000 --> 0:05:53.320 There's been wide reporting about how horrific the conditions are. 0:05:53.200 --> 0:05:54.279 In some of these facilities. 0:05:54.480 --> 0:05:58.280 And when the conditions are poor, and when the conditions 0:05:58.480 --> 0:06:00.919 are bad and they're jail like, people will give up 0:06:00.920 --> 0:06:01.400 their cases. 0:06:01.440 --> 0:06:02.880 People ask to be deported. 0:06:03.000 --> 0:06:05.159 And we've seen cases like this where people give up 0:06:05.200 --> 0:06:06.760 their case and say, well, I don't want to fight 0:06:06.800 --> 0:06:08.840 the government anymore, because again, these cases can take years 0:06:08.880 --> 0:06:10.240 and you don't want to spend years in some of 0:06:10.240 --> 0:06:10.920 these facilities. 0:06:11.080 --> 0:06:11.800 And again, in. 0:06:11.760 --> 0:06:14.760 Order for the adminstration to achieve its goals of mass deportation, 0:06:14.920 --> 0:06:19.440 to do a million deportations a year. They actually have 0:06:19.480 --> 0:06:21.039 to be quite efficient, right, Like they have to be 0:06:21.080 --> 0:06:23.920 getting people out of facilities quickly. I talked to one 0:06:24.000 --> 0:06:26.560 person who used to work in this world who said, 0:06:26.680 --> 0:06:28.760 you would have to be getting people out in under 0:06:28.760 --> 0:06:30.240 a month. You'd have to be moving people through the 0:06:30.240 --> 0:06:32.400 system and deporting them. That's quite hard to do. And 0:06:33.200 --> 0:06:35.120 as far as I'm aware that the administration has not 0:06:35.279 --> 0:06:36.920 achieved that in mass. 0:06:37.120 --> 0:06:40.960 Well, Trump's so called Big Beautiful Bill, which you signed 0:06:41.000 --> 0:06:43.520 into law last year, allocated a lot more money to 0:06:43.560 --> 0:06:47.320 ICE's detention expansion, right, forty five billion dollars. How has 0:06:47.320 --> 0:06:52.200 that changed the agency's strategy and change the kinds of 0:06:52.360 --> 0:06:54.720 facilities they're looking to invest in. 0:06:55.320 --> 0:06:59.080 I mean, forty five billion dollars is so much money, 0:06:59.160 --> 0:07:01.760 and we should just say that we have not seen 0:07:01.760 --> 0:07:07.240 that money spent because it is not easy to contract 0:07:07.279 --> 0:07:10.920 out with the government. It's not easy to build new 0:07:11.040 --> 0:07:17.040 jails quickly, and so I think the pivot to tents 0:07:17.680 --> 0:07:21.560 was supposed to be in an effort for speed. It 0:07:21.760 --> 0:07:26.200 was to try to build more jail space quickly. And 0:07:26.440 --> 0:07:30.040 you actually saw references to soft sided facilities for immigration 0:07:30.120 --> 0:07:33.640 detention in Project twenty twenty five. So this was part 0:07:33.800 --> 0:07:38.320 of the initial plan. I think what you saw with 0:07:38.400 --> 0:07:43.880 the Everglades facility in Florida that's referred to as Alligator Alcatraz, 0:07:44.440 --> 0:07:48.920 and then later with the facility at Fort Bliss, these 0:07:49.040 --> 0:07:52.800 things are just not meant to be turned into jails. 0:07:52.960 --> 0:07:55.640 It costs so much money to erect these things in 0:07:55.680 --> 0:07:58.840 the first place, let alone to detain thousands of people 0:07:58.880 --> 0:08:02.880 in them. Not to mentioned, the conditions inside these facilities 0:08:03.040 --> 0:08:07.960 are abysmal, according to reports from human rights groups and 0:08:08.160 --> 0:08:12.520 other news outlets. But it seems like because of all 0:08:12.600 --> 0:08:16.520 of that, because they haven't been able to contract out 0:08:16.560 --> 0:08:21.120 for enough bed spaces in these tent facilities, that's why 0:08:21.120 --> 0:08:23.800 they're turning their attention to warehouses. 0:08:23.880 --> 0:08:24.080 Now. 0:08:24.360 --> 0:08:27.360 The Department of Homeland Security and ICE didn't respond to 0:08:27.440 --> 0:08:31.800 questions about conditions and immigration detention facilities or their plans 0:08:31.800 --> 0:08:37.000 to expand you alluded to this already, Sophie, but full 0:08:37.440 --> 0:08:40.440 we're seeing ICE pivot from erecting these temporary structures to 0:08:40.679 --> 0:08:46.280 converting existing structures into detention facilities. They're looking at warehouses. Now, 0:08:47.360 --> 0:08:50.120 why what is behind that shift? Is it the new money, 0:08:50.240 --> 0:08:51.160 is it the lack of space? 0:08:51.480 --> 0:08:53.839 I think it's a combination of these things. Right. 0:08:53.880 --> 0:08:57.760 They're looking for sort of hard sided facilities, right, like 0:08:57.960 --> 0:09:00.880 there's not enough empty jails out there, And I mean, 0:09:00.920 --> 0:09:04.319 I think it also points to the massive amount of 0:09:04.800 --> 0:09:07.319 money that the agency has at its disposal. 0:09:07.400 --> 0:09:07.559 Now. 0:09:07.600 --> 0:09:10.880 I mean that it can even carry out a plan 0:09:11.000 --> 0:09:13.600 like this is proof that it has a lot of 0:09:13.600 --> 0:09:16.320 money to use. And I want to note as well 0:09:16.480 --> 0:09:18.280 that this is not the first time a plan like 0:09:18.320 --> 0:09:24.160 this has been proposed. Years ago under Trump one, according 0:09:24.160 --> 0:09:26.680 to some of our reporting, a plan like this was 0:09:26.760 --> 0:09:30.200 proposed and folks in the agency looked at the plan 0:09:30.320 --> 0:09:34.559 and decided that it wasn't practical or safe to hold 0:09:34.600 --> 0:09:37.560 this many people in facilities like this, and so the. 0:09:37.480 --> 0:09:38.160 Plan is scrapped. 0:09:38.600 --> 0:09:40.599 So one of the distinctions you're drawing between sort of 0:09:40.640 --> 0:09:43.439 the old approach and the new approach is soft versus hard. 0:09:43.760 --> 0:09:46.080 I'm wondering if you could draw out the difference a 0:09:46.080 --> 0:09:48.960 little bit more between like a temporary ten structure or 0:09:49.000 --> 0:09:55.120 even using existing local jails and using warehouses as detention facilities. 0:09:55.160 --> 0:09:56.800 What is the material difference there. 0:09:57.600 --> 0:09:59.960 I think the idea with the soft side of facil 0:10:00.880 --> 0:10:03.280 was we want to do this quickly, and you really 0:10:03.280 --> 0:10:06.920 could see that from the fact that they were tapping 0:10:06.920 --> 0:10:10.240 all of these tent companies that usually build base camps 0:10:10.280 --> 0:10:16.360 for oil companies or they respond after natural disasters like hurricanes. 0:10:16.360 --> 0:10:19.280 They're the ones who are building these great tent cities 0:10:20.120 --> 0:10:23.640 where you know, there's all these emergency services, rescue services, 0:10:23.679 --> 0:10:26.880 things like that that are set up. And from the 0:10:27.000 --> 0:10:31.600 very beginning, the people that we spoke with, who you know, 0:10:31.800 --> 0:10:35.600 have been looking at immigration detention for a very long time, 0:10:36.160 --> 0:10:39.360 I had a lot of concerns about whether tents could 0:10:39.559 --> 0:10:44.080 ever meet immigration detention standards that are nationally set. And 0:10:44.160 --> 0:10:46.720 I think that the administration is learning that this plan 0:10:47.960 --> 0:10:51.960 isn't working out as it had hoped because, for example, 0:10:52.080 --> 0:10:56.400 the facility at Fort Bliss, the initial plan was for 0:10:56.440 --> 0:10:59.400 that to be a five thousand bed facility. As far 0:10:59.440 --> 0:11:02.800 as we know, they haven't built that out yet to 0:11:03.360 --> 0:11:07.200 that extent, I think at this point there are as 0:11:07.240 --> 0:11:09.840 many as three thousand people who are detained in the 0:11:09.840 --> 0:11:13.240 facility right now, and again over the past month and 0:11:13.280 --> 0:11:16.600 a half you've seen three people die there. So I 0:11:16.640 --> 0:11:20.240 think that the pivot to hard sided facilities with the 0:11:20.280 --> 0:11:24.600 idea around warehouses is well, this is an actual building. 0:11:24.920 --> 0:11:27.320 At least that's got to be better. But I think 0:11:27.400 --> 0:11:31.520 that similar concerns arise when you have what was essentially 0:11:31.559 --> 0:11:34.240 an empty shell of a building that was not built 0:11:34.280 --> 0:11:37.200 to hold people, let alone thousands of people. 0:11:37.600 --> 0:11:41.760 A traditional jail facility is purpose created, right, It's created 0:11:41.800 --> 0:11:45.080 to detain people. It has the beds, it has the showers, 0:11:45.120 --> 0:11:47.800 it has the lock up, it has the health areas, 0:11:48.080 --> 0:11:50.880 it has all of these saintans built in. It's not 0:11:50.960 --> 0:11:53.920 clear to us, and I think some of the folks 0:11:54.000 --> 0:11:56.160 we've talked to as well, it's not clear to them 0:11:56.200 --> 0:11:59.320 either what or how they're going to convert these what 0:11:59.400 --> 0:12:02.440 is essentially blank shell into a geospace. 0:12:10.080 --> 0:12:13.120 So just how does ICE plan to get warehouse detention 0:12:13.280 --> 0:12:16.199 facilities up and running, and what kind of hurdles could 0:12:16.200 --> 0:12:34.920 the agency's proposal face that's coming up. ICE has aggressive 0:12:35.000 --> 0:12:38.680 deportation targets. The Trump administration has set a goal of 0:12:38.760 --> 0:12:42.880 one million deportations a year. To hit that target, the 0:12:42.920 --> 0:12:46.080 agency says it needs more space to house the people 0:12:46.120 --> 0:12:49.240 it detains. And I've been talking to Bloomberg reporters Sophie 0:12:49.240 --> 0:12:52.720 Alexander and Fulla Achinnoby about ICE's plans for a new 0:12:52.800 --> 0:12:58.320 kind of detention facility, huge converted warehouses, what kind of 0:12:58.400 --> 0:13:04.600 contractors might be submitting these proposals to convert warehouses into 0:13:04.640 --> 0:13:05.480 ice facilities. 0:13:06.120 --> 0:13:08.839 You know, as soon as the Reconciliation build passed and 0:13:09.200 --> 0:13:11.599 ice was given all these funds, there's been like a 0:13:11.640 --> 0:13:14.920 feeding frenzy and a level of excitement in these industries 0:13:14.960 --> 0:13:18.120 about the potential windfall, right, like the potential to make 0:13:18.320 --> 0:13:21.199 a lot of money. And so we're seeing defense companies 0:13:21.360 --> 0:13:24.880 orient themselves around this. We're seeing tent companies and companies 0:13:24.920 --> 0:13:28.560 that provide these like oil and emergency service base camps. 0:13:28.679 --> 0:13:33.080 We're seeing traditional private prison operators, We're seeing. 0:13:33.040 --> 0:13:34.400 I'm trying to think of new companies. 0:13:34.400 --> 0:13:37.000 We're we're seeing new companies that are being purpose built 0:13:37.040 --> 0:13:39.360 just to try to go for this work. And so 0:13:40.640 --> 0:13:42.960 it's a wide ranger folks who are reaching for this. 0:13:43.240 --> 0:13:45.520 And to put into the context, like the amount of 0:13:45.559 --> 0:13:49.600 money that is on the table here is more than 0:13:49.880 --> 0:13:53.120 many of these companies have ever seen in you know, 0:13:53.200 --> 0:13:57.200 their years of contracting with the government. So it really 0:13:57.320 --> 0:13:59.559 is the fullest point a feeding frenzy. It is just 0:13:59.760 --> 0:14:03.400 peopot are drawn to this. 0:14:04.360 --> 0:14:06.480 I want to talk more about the way the administration 0:14:06.600 --> 0:14:11.160 is going to secure these contracts and choose who does 0:14:11.240 --> 0:14:15.120 this building. What stood out to you about the way 0:14:15.360 --> 0:14:18.080 the government is running this process. 0:14:18.800 --> 0:14:22.400 So the administration started by trying to run these contracts 0:14:22.440 --> 0:14:25.800 through ICE because they are essentially they're going to be 0:14:25.840 --> 0:14:30.920 ICE detention facilities, but that got stalled. So then later 0:14:31.000 --> 0:14:35.400 in the year, later last year, the administration started going 0:14:35.440 --> 0:14:39.600 through a process with the Department of Defense something called WEXMAC, 0:14:39.760 --> 0:14:44.360 which is this typical Defense Department contracting vehicle that they 0:14:44.480 --> 0:14:47.240 use for all sorts of things all around the world. 0:14:47.640 --> 0:14:52.400 And because it's run through the Department of Defense, there 0:14:53.120 --> 0:14:56.440 is more of a delay in what information is shared, 0:14:56.880 --> 0:14:59.720 so it's harder to know what is happening real time 0:15:00.160 --> 0:15:03.840 the contracting process and who is a winning what when, 0:15:04.280 --> 0:15:06.680 which means you know who is going to be building 0:15:06.720 --> 0:15:08.000 out these facilities. 0:15:08.040 --> 0:15:12.400 And where have we been seeing any pushback to the 0:15:12.440 --> 0:15:15.720 administration's efforts on the ground in Minneapolis after the killing 0:15:16.240 --> 0:15:20.680 of Renee Good. We're seeing polling shifts slightly, seeing people 0:15:20.840 --> 0:15:25.000 questioning the extent of ISIS tactics. What kind of pushback 0:15:25.480 --> 0:15:29.720 is the administration getting, if any, on this expansion plan with. 0:15:29.760 --> 0:15:32.280 A facility like for Bliss. It's on an army base. 0:15:32.440 --> 0:15:36.080 It's sort of sequestered from like people's day to day lives. 0:15:36.280 --> 0:15:39.280 I think with this latest proposal for these sites, these 0:15:39.320 --> 0:15:43.600 warehouse sites, which seem to include locations across the country 0:15:44.040 --> 0:15:46.880 that are much closer to towns, to population centers, to 0:15:47.520 --> 0:15:50.360 I think people's everyday lives, we've already started to see pushback. 0:15:50.360 --> 0:15:54.520 The Washington Post reported some of the proposed locations, and 0:15:54.960 --> 0:15:58.280 folks in those towns have already said, well, we don't, don't, 0:15:58.280 --> 0:16:00.440 we don't want to see it right again. You know, 0:16:00.480 --> 0:16:03.640 the Ford Bliss facility is the largest immigration detention facility 0:16:03.640 --> 0:16:06.720 in the US. There's on a daily basis, like an 0:16:06.760 --> 0:16:10.040 average of twenty nine hundred people there. What's being proposed 0:16:10.040 --> 0:16:13.280 with these warehouse facilities. We're talking about five, six, seven, 0:16:13.560 --> 0:16:16.880 eight and nine thousand person facilities. 0:16:17.480 --> 0:16:20.720 It's interesting to see the list of municipalities where ICE 0:16:20.880 --> 0:16:25.120 is considering these warehouse facilities. But you talk to people 0:16:25.160 --> 0:16:28.200 in these towns, and it doesn't matter what their politics are. 0:16:28.280 --> 0:16:30.680 They do not want a jail a twenty minute walk 0:16:30.720 --> 0:16:33.800 from the school. They do not feel like they have 0:16:33.920 --> 0:16:38.240 the sewage capacity or like the water resources to be 0:16:38.320 --> 0:16:41.280 able to send to an eight thousand, five hundred bed 0:16:41.320 --> 0:16:45.880 detention facility. So you've already been seeing protests in some 0:16:46.040 --> 0:16:51.880 of these towns against the proposed detention facility, and these 0:16:51.880 --> 0:16:55.240 are again, these are just proposals. There's no ground that's 0:16:55.240 --> 0:16:58.400 been broken yet. We're only aware of one facility that's 0:16:58.440 --> 0:17:01.840 officially been purchased by ICE. But even still, people do 0:17:01.880 --> 0:17:03.920 not want these in their town's ideology. 0:17:03.960 --> 0:17:09.600 Aside as we think through the implications of ICE's rapid 0:17:09.680 --> 0:17:12.679 detention expansion, I want to bring the conversation back to 0:17:12.800 --> 0:17:16.240 Fort Bliss, Sophie. You've alluded to some of the questions 0:17:16.400 --> 0:17:19.399 and the concerns about the conditions there. Over the weekend, 0:17:19.480 --> 0:17:23.199 another death was reported at the facility. What does this 0:17:23.280 --> 0:17:27.800 tell you about the risks of ICE's rapid expansion and 0:17:27.840 --> 0:17:31.120 what we might see next. 0:17:31.560 --> 0:17:35.480 We are seeing this administration with a goal of deporting 0:17:35.640 --> 0:17:38.879 a million people a year and building out one hundred 0:17:38.880 --> 0:17:43.360 thousand beds. There's just so much urgency in this that 0:17:43.640 --> 0:17:48.000 I think there are questions around the safety and how 0:17:48.080 --> 0:17:52.040 much attention is being paid to these things like the 0:17:52.160 --> 0:17:54.320 national immigration detention standards. 0:17:55.000 --> 0:17:58.800 I've covered deal in prison conditions in the criminal legal contexts, 0:17:58.880 --> 0:18:02.320 and I think what you find is that as these 0:18:02.320 --> 0:18:04.879 facilities become larger and larger, and as you deal with 0:18:04.960 --> 0:18:09.280 issues with crowding, safety becomes a serious challenge. And so 0:18:09.440 --> 0:18:13.520 as the administration pushes for larger and larger facilities, it 0:18:13.640 --> 0:18:17.240 just sort of follows that. Safety incidents sort of follow that, right, 0:18:17.920 --> 0:18:22.000 And Bliss is the largest immigration detention facility in the US, 0:18:22.440 --> 0:18:26.679 and still the administration has not been able to expand 0:18:26.680 --> 0:18:30.959 it to the capacity that was originally proposed five thousand beds. 0:18:31.119 --> 0:18:33.600 I think it's extremely challenging to open facilities that are 0:18:33.680 --> 0:18:35.719 just large and to run them, to run them well, 0:18:35.720 --> 0:18:36.600 and to run them safely. 0:18:41.560 --> 0:18:44.639 This is the Big Take from Bloomberg News. I'm Sarah Holder. 0:18:45.480 --> 0:18:48.040 To get more from the Big Take and unlimited access 0:18:48.080 --> 0:18:51.760 to all of Bloomberg dot com, subscribe today at Bloomberg 0:18:51.800 --> 0:18:55.639 dot com Slash Podcast offer. Thanks for listening. We'll be 0:18:55.680 --> 0:18:56.280 back tomorrow.