U.S. officials are preparing to house up to 1,000 immigration detainees at a federal prison in Victorville as part of a Trump administration plan to expand the use of detention during its crackdown on immigrants in the country illegally.
The use of the facility and others run by the Bureau of Prisons “is intended to be a temporary measure until ICE can obtain additional long-term contracts for new detention facilities or until the surge in illegal border crossings subsides,” Danielle Bennett, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said Friday.
The number of people apprehended at the Southwest border has increased steadily in recent months. While overall apprehensions remain at historic lows, the numbers are up significantly compared with figures from President Trump’s first months in office.
The plan to use the federal prisons was first reported by Reuters.
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