Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced plans to establish a 5,000-bed migrant detention center at Fort Bliss, which would be the nation’s largest.

“5,000-bed migrant detention center planned for Texas’ Fort Bliss. The Trump Admin. is building the LARGEST illegal immigrant detention center right here in Texas,” Abbott said.

“We will help arrest, jail, & deport illegal immigrants,” he added.

The facility is expected to be completed by September 2027.

NewsNation has more:

Following the fast-tracked launch of Florida’s “Alligator Alcatraz” migrant detention facility, multiple states have expressed interest in creating their own.

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A newly announced center in West Texas is shaping up to be the nation’s largest, with the U.S. Department of Defense on Monday allocating more than $230 million to the construction of a 5,000-bed camp at Fort Bliss.

The DOD predicts the facility, built by Virginia-based Acquisition Logistics LLC, will be up and running near the U.S.-Mexico border by Sept. 30, 2027.

Earlier this month, President Donald Trump signed his so-called “big, beautiful bill” into law, effectively setting aside $170 billion for border and immigration enforcement — with $45 billion allocated for detention.

In total, the migrant detention center is expected to cost upwards of $1.26 billion.

NewsNation provided additional coverage:

The planned Texas facility follows the construction of “Alligator Alcatraz” in Florida, which holds up to around 3,000 people and has the ability to add more. 

FIRST LOOK Inside “Alligator Alcatraz” — Built In EIGHT Days!

Reason provided further details:

President Donald Trump has grappled with limited detention space holding back his mass deportation plans since January. As of late June, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) held a record-high 57,861 detainees. With only 41,500 beds officially allocated by Congress, the spike in numbers has already led to overcrowded conditions at many federal detention facilities. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which Trump signed into law in July, seeks to alleviate this bottleneck by appropriating $45 billion to increase detention capacity to 100,000 beds by the end of the year—more than doubling the current number of beds available.

Now, the Trump administration is focusing on providing detention tents, or "hardened soft-sided facilities," according to documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, to speed up expansion. Documents show that ICE is prioritizing nine projects in other locations including Colorado, Indiana, and New Jersey to add more than 9,000 detention beds. The Fort Bliss detention center in El Paso, Texas, is listed as the highest priority project, with plans to be operational by August.

 

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