DHS buys 2 more detention centers in California for $950 million

Andrea Castillo, Los Angeles Times on Oct 5, 2026

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WASHINGTON — The Department of Homeland Security has purchased two immigrant detention facilities in Adelanto for $950 million, according to the private prison corporation that sold them.

The sale by the GEO Group, a Florida-based government contractor, follows a $1.5-billion sale over the summer of two other California detention facilities by GEO's competitor, CoreCivic of Tennessee.

The sales bolster the Trump administration's goal of cementing its capacity to detain immigrants it seeks to deport and reflect efforts to avoid oversight from California and other states by placing the facilities under federal ownership, even though they would still be operated by private companies.

The most recent sale, announced Monday, includes the two buildings that make up the 1,940-bed Adelanto ICE Processing Center and the 704-bed Desert View Annex.

Homeland Security has said that California's laws, which increase oversight of immigration facilities, make federal ownership critical to ensure it retains the detention capacity needed on the West Coast.

Last week, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed more than 20 bills aimed at pushing back against the Trump administration's immigration agenda. Among them are bills that will authorize the California attorney general to bring civil actions to protect detainees' constitutional rights, and require the disclosure of public records, such as 911 calls, from the facilities.

Homeland Security has taken steps to avoid those laws, including through the facility purchases. With companies including GEO Group facing what CEO George C. Zoley called "unwarranted litigation" over allegedly unsafe conditions, federal ownership could become part of their defense strategy.

In total, the federal government has now spent nearly $3.2 billion on detention facility purchases, the majority of them in California. CoreCivic sold off two other facilities, in Minnesota and Kansas, in August.

The sales were made possible by an infusion last year of $45 billion for immigration detention from President Donald Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act as the administration seeks to expand its immigrant detention capacity.

In its announcement, GEO Group said it will continue managing daily operations at the facilities under the company's existing contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which is effective through Dec. 19, 2034.

The company said it is engaged in an "active process" with Homeland Security for the potential sale of multiple other facilities. Those sales hinge on GEO Group's ability to continue managing those facilities under long-term contracts, the company wrote.

"We are pleased with the completion of these important asset sales to the U.S. federal government, and we look forward to continuing to provide high-quality secure support services under our existing long-term contracts with ICE," Zoley, the company's CEO, wrote in a news release.

"We are proud of our 40-year public-private partnership with ICE, and we stand ready to continue to assist the federal government in meeting its immigration enforcement priorities," Zoley added.

During a shareholder call in August, Zoley said ICE was contemplating buying more than 10 facilities, and that number "could continue to grow."

"We are pursuing a potential sale of the buildings, but we want to retain the business," he said on the call. "We consider ourselves primarily a support services operator, and will place particular importance on our ability to continue our support services at any facility sold to ICE."

GEO Group said it anticipates receiving $705 million in proceeds from the sales, after taxes and transaction fees. The company wrote that net proceeds will reduce the company's debt and facilitate the repurchase of company shares.

The facilities in Adelanto, about 60 miles northeast of Los Angeles, have been the subject of complaint, lawsuits and visits by members of Congress.

Immigrant rights groups filed a federal class-action lawsuit against DHS this year alleging poor drinking water, food, sanitation and medical care at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center, and a federal judge ordered improvements.

Four people have died at the facility since last year, according to Homeland Security records. The agency often says that detainees receive comprehensive medical care and that, for many, it's the best they've ever had.

A mortality review by ICE investigators for Ismael Ayala-Uribe found that medical staff at the facility made repeated failures and "deviated beyond safe limits of practice." ICE took down the records, but the investigative publication Project Salt Box downloaded and published them.

Ayala-Uribe, 39, who had fallen ill at the facility, later suffered cardiac arrest at a hospital during a surgery related to a pelvic abscess in September 2025.

More detention space could be coming to California. Last month, Homeland Security signed a $1.2-billion construction contract to expand a federally owned facility in El Centro that ICE previously used but which GEO Group now operates for the U.S. Marshals Service, Project Salt Box first reported.