Last Updated on by Serena Zehlius
A federal immigration detention center in South Texas previously used to hold families is being reopened by the Trump administration after former President Joe Biden closed it and ended the practice of detaining families.
Sign up for The Brief, The Texas Tribune’s daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news.
The South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley is among the largest in the country with a capacity to detain up to 2,400 people. The Biden administration closed it last summer because it was reportedly far more expensive to operate than other U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities.
Shortly after taking office, Biden had stopped jailing families; the facility only held adults before it was closed.
On Wednesday, private prison corporation CoreCivic announced it had struck an agreement with Dilley city officials and ICE to resume operations at the facility — and indicated that the Trump administration will resume detaining families.
“I can acknowledge that we anticipate housing families at this facility,” a CoreCivic spokesperson said. He deferred further questions to ICE.
ICE officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Since it opened in 2015, the facility has been under scrutiny from immigrants rights advocates who question whether it is appropriate to jail families.
CoreCivic said it expects to net $180 million in annual revenue once the center is up and running.
“We are grateful for the trust our government partner has placed in us,” CoreCivic Chief Executive Officer Damon T. Hininger said in a statement. “We are entering a period when our government partners — particularly our federal government partners — are expected to have increased demand. We anticipate continued robust contracting activity throughout 2025 that will help meet their growing needs.”
This post contains content that was first published on Texas Tribune and republished here under a Creative Commons License.
