Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has released migrant detainees as its detention network is already exceeding capacity due to President Donald Trump's increased crackdown.
CBS News reported that the agency was holding about 42,000 people on Tuesday morning, 9% more than the some 38,500 it has across the country, distributed in for-profit prisons and county jails.
ICE acknowledged some releases, saying its "enhanced" operations have resulted in a "significant number of arrests of criminal aliens that require greater detention capacity."
"We are exploring every solution including working with U.S. Customs and Border Protection and our state and local law enforcement partners, asking Congress for increased funding, and scrutinizing case files to quickly remove criminal aliens with executable final orders of removal from Department of Justice immigration judges," ICE said in a statement to the outlet.
The agency sought to clarify that some laws require it to release some detainees, and that they remain supervised by it. ICE is arresting about 1,000 a day, about three times more than the figures during the Joe Biden administration. However, agents have been reportedly directed to increase the pace, the goal being to detain between 1,200 and 1,500 migrants a day.
Some migrants are being detained for weeks (in some case months) before ICE gets all paperwork necessary to deport them. In this context, the Trump administration is planning to largely expand detention capacity. It's already eyeing 14 new detention center that could hold up to 1,000 people each, as well as four larger facilities with a 10,000-bed capacity.
The agency is also seeking for other departments to join in the effort, with the Department of Defense authorizing the detention of migrants at a base in Colorado. The most high-profile effort, however, is the conditioning of a facility in Guantanamo Bay, which Trump claimed can hold up to 30,000 people. The president said those targeted are migrants living unlawfully in the U.S. but cannot be deported to their home countries.
"I'm Signing an executive order to instruct the departments of Defense and Homeland Security to begin preparing the 30,000 person migrant facility at Guantanamo Bay. We have 30,000 beds to detain the worst criminal illegal aliens threatening the American people," Trump said on Jan. 29.
The New York Times reported that the first wave of Marines arrived on February 1 from Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, with 50 more Marines arriving the following day. The first flight with detainees arrived on Tuesday night.
The outlet added that the military declined to comment on its current capacity to receive migrants, while the Southern Command, which has oversight of the troops assigned to Guantanamo and the plan, did not say who is in charge of the operation.
The plan showed six designated tent camps for more than 11,000 migrants, with the largest of being able to house more than 3,000 people at once.
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