By Melissa Montalvo
The Fresno Bee
CALIFORNIA CITY, Calif. — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is awarding private prison operator CoreCivic a major new contract to operate California’s largest ICE detention center as the Trump administration ramps up its deportation crackdown.
The contract to run the 2,560-bed California City Immigration Processing Center through August 2027 is expected to generate $130 million in revenue for the company, officials announced Monday. It will also allow CoreCivic to fill the detention facility to its full capacity.
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The California City facility, which previously operated as a state prison until early 2024, is located in the remote Mojave desert of eastern Kern County, about 70 miles east of Bakersfield.
CoreCivic was also awarded a $60 million dollar contract to operate a 1,033-bed facility in Leavenworth, Kansas. The company said these facilities are located “in core enforcement areas of the United States.”
“The geographic locations of each of these facilities will enhance our ability to support our government partner in its effort to enforce immigration laws in areas of need across the United States,” CoreCivic CEO Damon T. Hininger said in a press release. “Looking forward, we anticipate additional contracting activity that will help satisfy ICE’s growing needs.”
The contract awards were swiftly criticized by immigration rights groups, who accused CoreCivic and private contractors of profiting off of mass arrests and detentions of immigrants. Detainees and immigrant rights groups have described conditions inside the California City facility as “inhumane” following the facility’s rushed opening in late August..
At least one detainee reportedly tried to take his own life in the first weeks of the facility’s opening.
“The perverse financial incentives are glaring as private prison companies rake in millions at the expense of people’s lives and communities that are forced to rely on a carceral economy,” said Kelvin Lopez, a senior organizer with Detention Watch Network.
Ryan Gustin, senior director of public affairs for CoreCivic, said the company “takes seriously its obligation to adhere to all applicable federal standards in all our federally contracted facilities.”
“All our facilities operate with a significant amount of oversight and accountability, including being monitored by federal officials on a daily basis, to ensure an appropriate standard of living and care for every individual,” Gustin said in a statement.
The contract will likely result in more arrests in the Kern County area. A study by the Immigrant Legal Resource Center found immigrants are more likely to be arrested and detained by ICE in counties with more detention beds. In communities with more that 850 ICE detention beds, there was a 6.4 times higher likelihood of arrest, researchers found.
According to an analysis by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a nonpartisan watchdog group, private immigration detention companies donated a combined $2.8 million to President Donald Trump’s election and inauguration funds.
CoreCivic, a publicly traded company, has an estimated net worth of $2 billion, according to various stock analysis sites.
“It’s crystal clear to us that ICE is interested in every single bed that we’ve got in the enterprise,” a CoreCivic executive said in an August investors earnings call.
It’s unlikely the federal government shutdown will slow down immigration enforcement activity. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed by Congress in July included an unprecedented $29.9 billion for enforcement and $5 billion for detention to be spent through September 2029, according to a report by the American Immigrant Council, a Washington D.C. -based pro-immigrant advocacy group.
ICE’s work is considered “essential” law enforcement, so enforcement and deportation operations would not experience “significant impact” during a shutdown, the Council said.
A rushed reopening
The California City detention center quietly reopened as an ICE detention center in late August. There are an estimated 500 detainees held there as of Sept. 9 , according to Marquette Hawkins, mayor of California City. California immigrants rights advocates and faith leaders have criticized the city’s lack of transparency over the facility’s reopening.
California City officials have repeatedly said that there is little they can do to stop the project from moving forward, since immigration enforcement is a federal responsibility.
CoreCivic opened the ICE detention center without a valid business license and in violation of city municipal code, city officials said in a statement. The city’s legal team is evaluating its options and is considering issuing a notice of violation or a daily fine, officials said.
In addition, state law SB29 prohibits local jurisdictions from approving private detention facilities without public notice and a hearing — a process that has not yet taken place in California City.
“It is clear and evident that this situation reflects an ongoing tension between federal immigration priorities and California’s regulatory framework,” California City officials said in a statement Wednesday afternoon.
“While federal agencies may seek to utilize private facilities, the City of California City remains legally and ethically bound to uphold state laws and its own municipal code,” the statement said.
Gustin of CoreCivic’s said the company has submitted all required information for the business license and continue to maintain open lines of communication with city officials.
The California City detention center is the state’s seven ICE detention facility, and the third in Kern County. In April, CoreCivic was awarded an initial $13.5 million contract for initial “activation activities” while negotiating this longer-term contract.
Conditions at California City ICE facility
In late September, about 100 people detained in the California City facility conducted sit-ins and refused meals to protest the facility’s conditions.
Some protestors were placed in solitary confinement for protesting “inhumane” conditions, while others experienced delays in securing their psychiatric and blood pressure medications, two detainees told The Fresno Bee.
Hawkins, the city’s mayor, said he observed “humane” living conditions after touring the center on Sept. 9./
A spokesperson for CoreCivic said in a statement that “solitary confinement, whether as a term or in practice, does not exist at our California City Correctional Facility or any facility that CoreCivic operates.”
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