Crime & Justice · Sep 28, 2026ICE Watch: East Side ICE Detention Facility Now Expected To Open This Winter

ICE Watch & Accountability · Daily Update · September 28, 2026

Detention & Deaths

East Side ICE Detention Facility Now Expected To Open This Winter

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement now expects the facility at 542 S.E. Loop 410 to begin operations this winter as crews continue converting a nearly 640,000-square-foot warehouse into an immigration processing and detention center.

Plans have called for the facility to process as many as 1,500 people per day. The federal government purchased the property earlier this year for approximately $66.1 million. In August, ICE awarded GardaWorld Federal Services LLC a $17.3 million contract to renovate the property and provide services needed for its operation.^[1]

Activists Lay Gravestones Outside Suburban ICE Facility To Honor Those Who Died In Federal Custody

Rev. Quincy Worthington read out a list of the 294 people who died in immigration enforcement custody since 2018 to a crowd of roughly 50 demonstrators huddled outside the ICE facility Saturday.

Organizers with the Grito Latino Addison pitched hundreds of cardboard gravestones in a grassy patch in front of the facility, with each marker bearing the name of a person who died in a detention or processing center. At least 27 people have died in ICE custody this year, outpacing last year’s total of 33 deaths in immigration detention, according to a report from the National Immigration Project.^[2]

“Let us then honor the hopes and dreams and lives that they were never allowed to live, that were taken carelessly from them by the people who were supposed to have sworn to protect them.”
— as reported by Block Club Chicago

Courts & Lawsuits

GEO Group employee who shot protester outside Aurora ICE facility charged

Authorities are moving forward with charges against a GEO Group employee accused of shooting a protester outside the Aurora immigration detention center in July.

A judge ruled last week that prosecutors had enough evidence to charge Brandon Booth with first degree assault and first degree attempted assault in the shooting of protester Emma Landis. Neither GEO Group nor an attorney for Booth responded to requests for comment. According to an officer affidavit, the 42-year-old told officers that he was heading into his shift on July 16 when he was met by protesters.^[3]

ICE agents involved in two Colorado arrests deserve to be punished for violating order, federal judge says

A federal judge in Denver says immigration agents involved in the violent arrest of an 18 year old should be punished for violating a court order, and the federal government should release the teenager and pay his medical bills.

The teenager, who was driving with two relatives to work, sustained a black eye and cuts to his forehead, according to pictures attached to prior legal filings. His wrist was also broken during his arrest, the filings allege.^[4]

The teenager was shoved to the ground, where an agent allegedly beat him and pounded “his face against the pavement,” according to a sworn statement from another man arrested with him.
— as reported by The Denver Post

Raids & Arrests

Why is ICE making arrests so close to schools? San Diego grapples with enforcement surge

On Sept. 8, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents detained a second-year student at San Diego City College as he drove next to campus and chased another student onto the school grounds as he fled on foot.

The following day, ICE agents arrested the mother and father of a 2-year-old and a 5-year-old about a block away from their children’s San Diego school, just after they had dropped the children off. School staff had to move their car and contact a family friend to pick the children up after both parents were taken into ICE custody. And last Thursday, ICE agents detained a father outside a San Diego Head Start daycare after he dropped off his 2-year-old daughter.^[5]

Gone in 90 seconds: an ‘invisibilized’ ICE is arresting more people than ever

Those who lived through it describe the ICE raids as a “siege” or an “occupation”.

At the height of the raids last year, agents in armored military vehicles rolled through residential neighborhoods. Masked agents patrolled public parks and stationed themselves outside elementary schools; squadrons of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents snatched pedestrians off the streets. Then, officers killed two US citizens during an ICE “blitz” on Minneapolis.^[6]

Oversight & Policy

ICE awards CACI up to $150M task order

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has awarded Reston government contractor CACI International a task order worth up to $149.6 million to support its nationwide tactical communications infrastructure.

In the contract awarded Sept. 11, ICE initially allocated about $14 million, with additional funding potentially obligated over the task order’s life. According to USAspending.gov, the contract ends March 13, 2030.^[7]

The award calls for the Fortune 500 contractor to support ICE operations, maintenance, engineering and rapid deployment of nationwide tactical communications infrastructure, with the goal of “providing secure, interoperable and reliable communications for law enforcement and emergency response.”
— as reported by Virginia Business

ICE Spent $1B on Warehouses, Never Used One

Why It Matters Between January and April, Immigration and Customs Enforcement also known as ICE purchased 11 warehouses with the intent of renovating them to stash what the agency predicted would be an influx of detainees.

The cost came in at about $1.07 billion. By June, ICE was working to sell seven of them, having never housed a single detainee in any of the facilities. This time span coincided with the firing of former DHS head Kristi Noem, and the appointment of Markwayne Mullin being sworn in on March 24th.^[8]

Primary Records

Check the government’s own records directly:

• ICE detainee death reporting (ICE’s own notices)
• DHS Office of Inspector General reports
• ICE online detainee locator

References

1. saobserver.com. East Side ICE Detention Facility Now Expected To Open This Winter. ↩
2. Block Club Chicago. Activists Lay Gravestones Outside Suburban ICE Facility To Honor Those Who Died In Federal Custody. ↩
3. Colorado Public Radio. GEO Group employee who shot protester outside Aurora ICE facility charged. ↩
4. The Denver Post. ICE agents involved in two Colorado arrests deserve to be punished for violating order, federal judge says. ↩
5. Times of San Diego. Why is ICE making arrests so close to schools? San Diego grapples with enforcement surge. ↩
6. The Guardian. Gone in 90 seconds: an ‘invisibilized’ ICE is arresting more people than ever. ↩
7. Virginia Business. ICE awards CACI up to $150M task order. ↩
8. Legis1. ICE Spent $1B on Warehouses, Never Used One. ↩

Methodology: ICE Watch & Accountability is compiled daily by scripts/ice_watch.py from named news reports published in the previous 36 hours. Passages in bold and in quotation blocks are verbatim from the cited report; nothing is paraphrased or generated by AI. Stories are grouped by keyword into sections, and a story already covered on Kemetic Minds in the past three days is skipped.

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