CALIFORNIA CITY, Calif. – Two former prison facilities in Kern County could soon augment the federal government’s immigrant detention capacity as the Trump Administration looks to ramp up its mass deportation campaign. The facilities would open with the blessing of Congress, which earlier this month approved historic new funding through the Big Beautiful Bill.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) filed paperwork this spring to acquire and reopen two Kern County facilities: the California City Correctional Center, a state prison that was deactivated in 2024, and the McFarland Female Community Reentry Facility, which closed after the state corrections department ended contracts with some private prison groups in 2020.
The California City facility is set to reopen under the management of the Tennessee-based private prison operator CoreCivic. With 2,560 beds reported by the company, this would become the state’s largest detention facility to house immigrants without legal status. The McFarland facility, operated by Florida-based GEO Group, has the capacity for 300 beds.
According to the Associated Press, the two prisons are among nearly two dozen idle facilities across the U.S. owned by these two companies, many of which are slated to reopen as immigration detention facilities.
If all of these move forward, ICE’s 41,000 existing beds nationwide could double to at least 100,000 beds – and even more, if private prison executives’ estimates are accurate.
“Never in our 42-year company history have we had so much activity and demand for our services as we are seeing right now,” said CoreCivic CEO Damon Hininger during an earnings call with shareholders earlier this spring.
Although it’s unclear when the facilities will open, The Bakersfield Californian reports the California City prison already has a sign out front with its new name: the “California City Immigration Processing Center.” CoreCivic itself named a new warden for the facility last month.
Many of these plans have been in the works since Trump assumed office in January, but they are all bolstered by a breathtaking injection of funds by the recently passed Big Beautiful Bill Act into Trump’s immigration agenda.
According to the New York Times, the law allocates $170 billion over the next four years toward immigration enforcement, mostly to the Department of Homeland Security.
According to Politifact, the annual budget of ICE alone will skyrocket from from about $8 billion to roughly $28 billion, making it the highest funded law enforcement agency in the federal government.
Group opposes Kern County ICE facilities
Late last month, the non-profit Dolores Huerta Foundation penned a letter to city councilmembers in California City, urging them to not allow this facility to reopen.
“We believe it is still essential for this community to make its voice heard and refuse to be complicit in a system built on incarceration, dehumanization, and profit from suffering,” reads the letter co-signed by organization president and civil rights leader Dolores Huerta and executive director Camila Chavez.
The letter also called out private prison operators for not bringing promised economic prosperity to their surrounding communities.
“We urge you not to mistake short-term job offers for long-term economic health. California City deserves real investment — in housing, healthcare, education, and job training,” the letter continues.
