Newly confirmed DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin is taking office at a time when the department has obtained major detention centers in Maryland, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Georgia.
The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) says the acquisitions reflect U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) continued progress in implementing policy goals set last summer following its receipt of $45 billion specifically for detention in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
Ira Mehlman, media director for FAIR, says being able to detain somebody who is in removal proceedings "is key to getting them out of the country."
"What we saw during the Biden administration and even before … was essentially limiting the number of detention spaces and then just releasing everybody else with a pending court date," the FAIR spokesman recalls.
Many of those individuals did not show up for court; they got their final orders of deportation and simply disappeared into the U.S.
"What we saw under the Biden administration was the knowledge that you were not going to be detained. So, people showed up, made false asylum claims or other claims knowing that they were going to be released into the country," Mehlman summarizes. "That's 95% of the game right there."
But he insists, "This should not be a cat and mouse game."
The acquisition of these detention facilities indicates "we're not letting you loose in the country where we have to go find you again," he says.
This increased space prevents illegals from "gaming the system" and putting their lives and their families' lives in the hands of criminal cartels to get them into the country.
"It's a win-win," Mehlman concludes.
