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DHS to transfer three Texas warehouses as detention expansion plan dissolves
The three Socorro, Texas warehouses totaled 826,000 square feet and were part of a plan to create an 8,500-bed immigrant detention facility, after DHS shifted strategy.
The Department of Homeland Security is transferring three warehouses in Socorro, Texas, to the General Services Administration to offload the properties as its approach to expanding immigrant detention capacity pivots, U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar announced Tuesday, according to Bisnow.
The warehouses were purchased by Immigration and Customs Enforcement for $123 million in February from an entity linked to St. Louis-based Flint Development, covering a combined 826,000 square feet, with plans that Escobar said would have created an 8,500-bed facility.
The warehouses were built with a different purpose, El Paso Matters previously reported, originating as structures intended to hold nuts harvested from nearby pecan groves, before the detention conversion plan moved forward.
Bisnow reports the broader expansion effort involved DHS spending more than $1 billion between December and April to buy 11 industrial properties, which would be converted to house more than 90,000 immigrants, before the program was paused and ultimately reversed after contract review and leadership changes. Since then, DHS has turned to private prison operators for capacity increases, including a reported $2.2 billion paid to CoreCivic for four facilities and an agreement to pay CoreCivic and Geo Group $240 million a year to reactivate SHU space.