by Kevin Killough
The U.S. Immigration and Enforcement agency sent out a request for information seeking contractors who could operate detention facilities near Denver, Miami and Seattle, and central Pennsylvania.
According to the procurement documents, which were posted to the federal contracting site SAM.gov, ICE plans to award four regional contracts under a flexible structure that will allow the agency to order detention services as needed, “Project Salt Box” reported.
The request calls for 1,500 beds near Denver, 1,500 near Seattle, 700 near Miami, and 1,800 in Pennsylvania. Each facility is required to be reserved exclusively for ICE detainees. The agency will accept sites built for low- and medium-level security capabilities, but it will grant preference to those that can handle the highest level.
The request requires that the facilities be capable of accepting detainees within 30 days of an award.
The solicitation aligns geographically with several existing facilities operated by the GEO Group, including the Aurora ICE Processing Center in Colorado, the Broward Transitional Center in Florida, the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, Washington, and the Moshannon Valley Processing Center in Pennsylvania, the outlet reported.
Those sites have drawn separate scrutiny in recent months. At the Northwest ICE Processing Center, a federal judge in July ordered the GEO Group to allow Washington state health inspectors access after years of blocked visits and more than 3,500 complaints about conditions, though a subsequent appellate stay has temporarily paused the inspections.
In Florida, the temporary South Florida Detention Facility — widely known as “Alligator Alcatraz” — closed in late June after less than a year of operation. Opened in July 2025 on a remote airstrip in the Everglades, the tent-based center processed more than 20,000 people for deportation before detainees were transferred elsewhere ahead of hurricane season, state and federal officials said. The site faced multiple lawsuits over conditions, access to counsel, and environmental impacts.
Oregon remains one of the few states without a long-term ICE detention facility. Detainees arrested there are typically held briefly at the agency’s South Waterfront field office in Portland before transfer to the Tacoma center. Local officials have pursued land-use enforcement against the Portland site’s landlord over alleged overnight holds exceeding a 12-hour limit, while reports of potential new facilities near Portland International Airport have not advanced.
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Kevin Killough is a reporter at Just the News. Executive Editor of The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network Christina Botteri contributed to this report.
