Texas ICE Plan Turns Immigrant Detention Into a Profitable Private Industry

The proposed ICE transportation system in Texas represents a dangerous escalation of immigration enforcement that removes accountability and transparency from the process. According to planning documents obtained by WIRED, ICE is considering a “nonstop operation” using private contractors to collect immigrants detained in all 254 Texas counties and transport them to detention sites. Each county would have its own team of armed contractors authorized to “perform transport duties in any and all local, county, state, and ICE locations.” This means private security firms—not federal agents—would assume control over people’s custody and movement, an alarming shift of power from public institutions to profit-driven entities.

The plan calls for a network of 254 transport hubs and a workforce of over 2,000 armed contractors. Vehicles would have to respond within 30 minutes and operate around the clock, maintaining an “80 percent readiness rate” across three shifts. Essentially, ICE is building what WIRED described as “a shadow logistics network” designed to funnel detained immigrants through a closed loop—local police arrest, private contractors deliver, and private jails detain. This system would function largely outside of public view, while ICE itself “becomes little more than an overseer,” delegating nearly every step of detention and transport to private hands.

Critics warn this approach opens the door to human rights abuses and financial exploitation. With contractors carrying weapons and operating under minimal federal supervision, the risks to detainees’ safety and dignity are immense. “Transportation is merely the next logical step,” WIRED reported, as ICE seeks to “move detainees faster and farther, with fewer federal agents ever seen in public.”

Meanwhile, Texas Senate Bill 8—signed by Governor Greg Abbott—forces every sheriff running a jail to join the federal 287(g) program, ensuring “uniformity and cooperation among all counties.” This effectively transforms Texas into “an annex” of federal immigration authority, turning local policing into an extension of federal enforcement. 

By outsourcing detention logistics and incentivizing arrests through federal funding and bonuses, this plan prioritizes control and profit over humanity—turning migration into a business and people into commodities.

Link: Wired