Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Loading… The Trump administration’s unprecedented expansion of migrant detention facilities is igniting fierce opposition in communities across the political and geographic spectrum, as the administration moves to scale up its detention footprint to fuel its campaign to arrest, detain and deport the largest number of immigrants in modern U.S. history. Flush with new cash — $85 billion in new funding , with around $45 billion specifically to expand immigration detention over four years — Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is moving fast to lease and acquire warehouses and buildings across the United States with the aim of retrofitting them into detention spaces. ICE is also expanding contracts with local jails and private prison facilities as it builds out its sprawling detention footprint. ICE is now the highest-funded law enforcement agency in the nation. for NPR / Wesley Lapointe for NPR / Wesley Lapointe for NPR An Immigration and Customs Enforcement worker stands outside a warehouse in Williamsport, Md., that’s being converted into an immigration detention center with plans to hold 1,500 people, on March 9. ICE detainees have been held a
