Efforts to speed up deportations of migrant families and unaccompanied children has led the Trump Administration to build a new holding facility near the Alexandria Airport.
A report by the Associated Press states that U.S. and Immigration Enforcement (ICE) officials recently signed a contract to construct a 528-bed facility, right next to ICE’s Alexandria Staging Facility.
This new holding facility will be located at the former military base near England Airpark, and serve as a 72-hour holding center. Airpark officials characterize the operation as a humanitarian effort for self-deporting families.
Yet, immigration advocates paint a much darker picture, claiming most of the families which choose to self-deport often do so under some form of duress, or because they lack a fundamental understanding of the process, and what is ultimately happening to them.
According to ICE Flight Monitor, more than 4,400 immigration enforcement flights came in and out of the Alexandria airport last year. The new holding facility could be up and running as early as August.
ICE is calling the Alexandria facility a “staging area,” not a detention center, and says people would only be there a few days at most. Yet some advocates fear that children could be held at the new center for weeks or even months, like other immigration holding sites.
Augmenting, Not Replacing Existing Operations
The new 528-bed ICE holding center will not replace the existing Alexandria Staging Facility, which already has its own 400-bed short-term holding center on the tarmac of the former military airfield (England Air Force Base).
As ICE’s own literature explains, “This location means detainees can be moved from holding cell to aircraft without ever entering public space.” The Alexandria Staging Facility is one of five ICE Air Operations locations (others include: San Antonio & Brownsville, TX, Miami, FL, and Mesa, AZ).
The Alexandria location is considered the cornerstone of ICE’s deportation flight operations and handles the largest volume, according to its own public information website.
That is among the many reasons why the staging facility is considered a “logistics hub” and stands apart from the new 528-bed housing facility. An estimated 1,000 people move through the facility every week.
