Family detention centers for undocumented immigrants are set to return under Trump administration plans

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President-elect Donald Trump’s new deportation plan calls for the reinstatement of detention centers for entire families, something that has been severely criticized in the past.

In a highly defended video by immigration enforcement chief Thomas Homan, the official downplayed criticism that the policy would separate families.

“Absolutely not, we would deport entire families,” he said.

In addition to this measure, the Trump administration plans to expand detention sites in large cities, including Los Angeles.

The Trump administration is considering locations and talking to private prison companies about drastically expanding immigrant detention centers that would hold immigrants before they are deported as part of President-elect Donald Trump’s promised mass deportation plan, two sources familiar with the planning told NBC News.

The goal is to double the number of Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention beds — 41,000 are now allocated by Congress — to hold vast numbers of migrants for short periods of time while they await deportation after their arrests inside the U.S., the sources said.

The plan would also include restarting the policy of detaining parents with their children, known as family detention, which immigration advocates have criticized and the Biden administration stopped in 2021, the sources said.

So far, people working on the plans with the Trump transition team are assessing which of the facilities the Biden administration closed could be reopened, taking account of available space in county jails and assessing which areas might need temporary facilities to detain migrants as part of the deportation effort.

Trump’s transition team is looking at how many migrants each region can hold, including in Democratic-controlled metropolitan areas across the country. A source familiar with the plans said they prioritize areas with large migrant populations that lack detention facilities, rather than single out Democratic strongholds.

Cities with large populations of migrants — like Denver, Los Angeles, Miami and Chicago — could need additional detention sites built nearby to hold arrested migrants there. The administration might also need to reopen, expand or build new facilities in the Northeast to hold migrants arrested around New York City, Philadelphia and Washington, the source said.

Another source familiar with the plans said so-called sanctuary policies in Democratic cities should not prevent ICE from expanding detention there.

The details of the plan open a window into what Trump has promised will be the “largest deportation operation in American history.” Critics of the plan have said he would lack the money, staffing, willingness from countries to take back migrants, flights and detention space to make it a reality.

New ‘border czar’ warns: ‘hell of a lot more’ deportations than first term