A Military Built for War, Now Jailing Migrants
Trump’s detention expansion puts the Pentagon’s might behind ICE’s mass deportation campaign.
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is moving to use U.S. military installations to house thousands of immigrants in deportation proceedings, a decision critics say dangerously blurs the line between civil law enforcement and the armed forces — and revives some of the darkest chapters in American history.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth this summer approved requests from the Department of Homeland Security to begin holding immigrants at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey, Camp Atterbury in Indiana, and Fort Bliss in Texas, while also expanding migrant detention at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba, according to correspondence obtained by NPR and confirmed by the Pentagon.
At Fort Bliss, ICE has already begun holding detainees in tent-like facilities, with capacity expected to reach 5,000 people — the largest civil immigration detention site in the United States. In Indiana and New Jersey, officials say the bases could soon accommodate between 1,000 and 3,000 people each. Together, the bases form the core of a new DHS strategy to process and deport immigrants from the country’s interior on an unprecedented scale.
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Advocates Warn of Internment Echoes
Civil rights groups say the reliance on military bases for immigration detention is “deeply concerning” and risks normalizing the use of military infrastructure for civilian law enforcement.
“What we’re seeing with Fort Dix is an overreach that we shouldn’t normalize when it comes to the use of military facilities or military resources for immigration detention,” said Ami Kachalia of the ACLU of New Jersey. She and others compared the move to the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II, when the U.S. government used military sites to confine citizens and residents based on ancestry.
Christopher Purdy, an Iraq War veteran who once served at Fort Dix, called the new policy the opposite of the humanitarian mission that military bases fulfilled during the 2021 Afghan evacuation. “Instead of taking people out of harm’s way, what they’re actually doing is putting people in danger,” Purdy told DocumentedNY. “Using the military to enforce immigration law is incredibly dangerous to this country.”
Military Readiness vs. Civilian Detention
Hegseth has insisted the deployments will not harm military training or readiness. In letters to lawmakers, he wrote that bases would remain focused on military missions, while ICE contractors and staff handle “all care and custody” of detainees, including meals, transportation, and medical services. Defense officials emphasized that no active-duty personnel would directly guard or process immigrants.
Still, the Pentagon has authorized National Guard troops to assist with detention-related “riot control” and guard duty, raising fears of militarization. Already, Guard units are helping ICE in Florida, Texas, and Louisiana, with hundreds more expected to be called up in at least seven additional states.
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Lack of Transparency and Oversight
Lawmakers from New Jersey and Indiana — nearly all Democrats — say they have been left in the dark. Rep. Herb Conaway (D-N.J.) condemned the plan as “an inappropriate use of our national defense system and military resources,” while Rep. Andre Carson (D-Ind.) said his questions about detainee conditions remain unanswered.
The secrecy extends beyond Congress. The ACLU and immigrant rights groups have been denied details about detainee housing, deportation flight operations, or whether attorneys will have reliable access to clients on bases that are otherwise closed to the public. “If members of Congress can’t get inside to conduct oversight,” Purdy said, “what chance do asylum lawyers have?”
Billions in New Funding
The expansion comes on the heels of a congressional spending package that allocated $45 billion for immigration detention centers and $30 billion for ICE personnel, transportation and operations. Tom Homan, Trump’s “border czar,” said the administration’s goal is to double U.S. detention capacity to 100,000 beds. “The faster we get the beds, the more people we can take off the street,” Homan said.
A Divisive Model for the Future
Supporters of the move, including Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R), have hailed the Fort Bliss facility as proof of the administration’s commitment to mass deportations. But opponents warn it risks turning military posts into civilian prison camps.
“Military bases are not designed, staffed, or equipped for civilian detention operations,” said Jason Houser, ICE’s former chief of staff, in an interview with The Washington Post. “Detention at these facilities complicates oversight, legal access, and monitoring — raising the risk of violations and lack of transparency.”
For now, immigrant advocates say there is still time to stop the plan from fully taking hold. “These are not wartime operations,” said Sarah Mehta of the ACLU. “These are not national security operations. This is immigration detention, and we should not be using our armed forces to carry it out.”
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