ICE Seeks Contractors to Expand Detention at 14 Sites, Including Guantanamo and the Virgin Islands

The Trump administration has issued a request for proposals seeking construction firms to build or expand immigration detention facilities at up to 14 locations across the United States and its territories, according to documents reviewed by TIME. The sites include Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands; and an expansion at Port Isabel, Texas, along with El Centro, California; Miami; Honolulu; Florence, Arizona; Batavia, New York; Broadview, Illinois; Oakdale, Louisiana; El Paso and Huntsville, Texas; and Aguadilla, Puerto Rico. The standardized facilities would each hold 26 cells, cost an estimated $24 million to $40 million, and fall under a spending cap of $10 billion, with a contract expected by the end of September.

The plan signals a shift away from an earlier strategy of converting commercial warehouses, which stalled amid lawsuits and local opposition, and a renewed push at Guantanamo, where a facility the president said in 2025 could hold 30,000 people has operated far below capacity at high cost. The expansion accompanies the administration's drive to raise arrests and detention capacity.

The documents state construction will proceed only if deemed "in the government's best interest," leaving the scope contingent on the contracting process.