Republican governors are vying for billions of immigration enforcement dollars from the GOP’s megalaw, as state-federal partnerships emerge as a key strategy in the Trump administration’s rapid expansion of migrant detention capacity.
The Trump administration has already announced deals to establish detention facilities in Florida, Indiana and Nebraska, and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has signaled more announcements are coming — pointing to Florida’s Alligator Alcatraz as the model for quickly launching detention sites at airports and jails across the country.
In Louisiana, state and federal officials have discussed a deal to fund the renovation of parts of Angola, the nation’s largest maximum-security prison, to hold detainees, according to an administration official, who like others for this story were granted anonymity to discuss the plans. ICE officials have looked at a few private, vacant prisons in Oklahoma to potentially hold detainees, a state official told POLITICO. And in Texas, the massive soft-sided tent structure at Fort Bliss — Lone Star Lockup — opened last weekend under a Defense Department contract.
As the Trump administration rushes to spend the $170 billion for border and immigration enforcement in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and meet aggressive White House targets for arrests and deportations, red-state governors are eager to pitch in — and grab a piece of the new funding authorized in the legislation. State officials are working with the Trump administration to secure detention contracts, but also to help fund costs that come with certain arrangements, called 287(g) agreements, that allow local and state law enforcement to assist Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“There’s no question that if you’re a Republican governor, you’re looking for ways to do this cooperation there,” said Ken Cuccinelli, who served as Trump’s deputy of Homeland Security during the first term. “They’re literally willing to pay for you to flex your public safety muscles in your own home state. I mean, are you kidding? Where’s the downside?”
Coordination with Republican governors will be a crucial component of ICE’s high-speed build-out, an unprecedented effort that has already spurred lawsuits and drawn accusations of mistreatment and cruelty in detention facilities across the country. And the partnerships underscore the Trump administration’s increasing reliance on soft-sided facilities and vacant prisons and structures that require little construction — an effort designed to intensify President Donald Trump’s deportation campaign.
Most projects are competing for a piece of the $45 billion carved out for detention capacity in the OBBB Congress passed last month. It’s enough money to increase ICE’s detention capacity by 80,000 beds, according to DHS.
“We want to empower governors and states to help ICE in the mission and help our local leadership to be able to conduct this mission at such a large scale,” ICE deputy director Madison Sheahan said in an interview. “Alligator Alcatraz or the Speedway Slammer, as well as other governors that are very interested in being part of this mission, is really a huge opportunity for us … to maximize, not only as a force multiplier in the bed space sense, but also … work with state and local law enforcement to share intel.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, after opening Alligator Alcatraz earlier this summer, announced this month that his state was opening a second detention site at a shuttered prison that he christened “Deportation Depot” — both projects that tap into funding in the Federal Emergency Management Agency shelter program. In Indiana, Noem touted an agreement with Gov. Mike Braun to expand ICE detention space by 1,000 with its “Speedway Slammer” at Miami Correctional. And this week, Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen said he and Noem had agreed to use an existing minimum security prison work camp — dubbed “Cornhusker Clink” — to hold migrants awaiting deportation.
DHS has been eager to tout the agreements, which remain in early stages. Noem announced Indiana’s Speedway Slammer before a contract had been finalized, according to the administration official, and state officials said Nebraska’s agreement is also being negotiated.
In Florida, there’s been confusion over whether Alligator Alcatraz is a federally operated facility or run strictly by the state government — a crucial question that emerged in court hearings this month. Questions also remain about plans for facilities in Indiana and Nebraska, though both states have contended they will assist the federal government with enforcement, including with state law enforcement and national guard.
Working with Republican governors allows the federal government to move faster and is more cost-efficient, Sheahan said. And for red state officials, there are a number of incentives — including a political messaging opportunity on public safety and crime.
“I know that that was a big topic: What is this going to cost the states to work with the Trump administration? When the reality is, as we lower those crimes and remove these people — to me, I look at it as a great investment for the safety of our citizens,” said Tim Tipton, Oklahoma’s commissioner of the Department of Public Safety. “And if you do a good job, and you remove the criminals, then you’re going to see benefit from it.”
While Republicans argue that working with the Trump administration provides both public safety upsides and economic opportunities for their states, the partnerships have also drawn scrutiny and public outcry. Protesters have plagued the detention sites, and Alligator Alcatraz has faced accusations of inhumane conditions and limited access to legal counsel for detainees.
The Florida facility is facing several lawsuits, including one for concerns about legal access and another that alleges the mass detention site violates environmental laws and threatens the Everglades ecosystem. A suit filed Friday evening challenged the state’s authority to detain people at the detention facility.
Thursday night, in the case that challenges Alligator Alcatraz on environmental grounds, a federal judge ruled that the states and the Trump administration can’t add more detainees to the current population, and must move toward dismantling the facility — a decision Florida has already appealed.
“This is not going to deter us,” DeSantis said Friday. “We’re going to continue working on the deportations, advancing that mission.”
And beyond the pushback, questions remain about the longevity of the Trump administration’s massive investment in the immigration system. Many states appear to be negotiating shorter-term contracts — anything beyond the president’s term may not have the funding, said Scott Shuchart, a senior ICE official during the Biden administration.
“I have to think that some of these states understand that Congress is fickle on this stuff,” Shuchart said. “And I don’t know if ICE is ever going to go back to 40,000 beds, but the idea that it’s going to stay appropriated at this level, indefinitely, I wouldn’t count on that just as an investment matter.”
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