Government documents obtained by the watchdog group Project Salt Box have revealed a striking new chapter in the federal government's immigration enforcement expansion:
Immigration and Customs Enforcement plans to create "mobile detention facilities" for immigrant detainees in Pennsylvania.
The disclosure comes as a new Government Accountability Office report released this week paints a damning picture of ICE's broader detention strategy, finding that
ICE "pursued its detention expansion initiatives without developing a comprehensive strategic plan to guide its efforts," including long-term cost analyses.
What Are "Mobile Detention Facilities"?
Buried in the paperwork first obtained by Project Salt Box is a document regarding expansion in Pennsylvania. ICE says it's looking for "mobile detention facilities," which it describes as being run by GTI, the transportation subsidiary of GEO Group.
According to Michael Wriston, a co-founder of Project Salt Box and former military intelligence analyst,
"What they describe is a network of vans that would follow officers into the field as they make these arrests."
The details in the government documents are sparse — and that is precisely what concerns advocates.
The only details about the mobile units provided in the document are that they will be used "until full" or until the operation is done and that women can't be held in them for over 10 hours.
Missing from the description are any standards governing how long a person can be held in a van, access to restrooms, or food provisions.
Neither ICE nor the GEO Group responded to NPR's request for comment about the vans.
Why Pennsylvania?
Wriston thinks the focus on Pennsylvania is because it's such a large state where many police departments are not allowed to work with ICE. That means detained immigrants can't be held at local jails.
In jurisdictions where local law enforcement has adopted "sanctuary" or non-cooperation policies, ICE faces logistical hurdles in processing and holding individuals it apprehends in the field. Mobile detention units would offer a workaround — bringing the holding capacity directly to the point of arrest.
Enforcement Sweeps, Not Targeted Operations
The nature of the mobile detention plan raises fundamental questions about the scope of enforcement operations. Wriston argues the need for mobile holding capacity points to large-scale operations rather than the targeted enforcement actions the Trump administration has described publicly. As he told NPR:
"If this were targeted immigration enforcement, if this were truly 'worst of the worst'-type enforcement, it stands to reason that ICE would have a list of a couple of names, and then an officer or a team of officers would go out and make an arrest. This describes sweeps, immigration sweeps."
This characterization is consistent with the current data on ICE's detainee population.
Of the tens of thousands of people currently in ICE detention, around 70% have no criminal record.
A Pivot After Failed Warehouse Plans
The mobile detention concept represents a strategic pivot for the agency.
It's part of a massive detention expansion that began last year when the agency turned into the highest-funded U.S. law enforcement agency, with a $75 billion supplement from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. This shift in strategy comes after ICE started buying large warehouses nationwide to turn into mega detention centers.
That warehouse initiative has largely collapsed.
ICE spent $1.07 billion between January and April 2026 to purchase 11 warehouses nationwide, planning to convert the buildings into detention centers.
But the plan met fierce resistance.
The plans faced widespread pushback from communities near the warehouses and from immigration activists.
Several states, including Maryland, sued.
A GAO report published September 24 confirmed the scale of the failure:
among the misspending was nearly $3 million to erect tents at Guantanamo Bay that were never used, $20 million to maintain purchased warehouses that are now being sold without having housed a single detainee.
Congress gave ICE an unprecedented $45 billion to expand detention capacity last year as part of the Trump-backed One Big Beautiful Bill, but the agency still lacks a comprehensive strategic plan for how to spend it wisely, the report warned.
Despite these setbacks,
the Trump administration is also detaining immigrants at record numbers — roughly 100,000 people arrested in the last two months.
While the warehouse project has flopped, records show that in the last few months ICE has quietly expanded its detention system in other ways.
During an August earnings call,
an investor asked GEO Group CEO George Zoley whether ICE was still aiming to reach 100,000 operational beds. "I think so, for the most part," Zoley responded, saying ICE presently has 68,000 beds.
Detention Standards and Legal Concerns
Existing ICE detention standards for land transportation require that
vehicles used for transporting detainees are properly equipped, maintained, and operated and that detainees are transported in a secure, safe and humane manner, under the supervision of trained and experienced staff.
However, these standards were designed for point-to-point transport — not for extended field detention inside vehicles.
The concept of holding individuals in vans for indeterminate periods during arrest operations occupies a legal gray area. The existing 10-hour cap for women suggests that men could theoretically be held even longer, with no stated upper limit in the documents obtained by Project Salt Box.
What This Means for Immigrants and Their Families
The implications of mobile detention operations are significant for immigrant communities across Pennsylvania — and potentially nationwide if the model is expanded:
- Due process concerns: Individuals detained in mobile units may face challenges in accessing legal counsel, understanding their rights, or making timely contact with family members or attorneys.
- Scope of enforcement: The sweep-style operations suggested by the mobile facility model mean that individuals with valid immigration status — including visa holders, asylum seekers with pending cases, and those with Temporary Protected Status — could be caught up in enforcement dragnets.
- Conditions of confinement: Without clear standards for basic necessities like food, water, and sanitation in mobile units, detainees face potential humanitarian risks.
- Know Your Rights: Immigration attorneys continue to advise that all individuals — regardless of status — carry documentation of their lawful presence and understand their constitutional right to remain silent and to refuse consent to searches.
Looking Ahead
The Department of Homeland Security told GAO it would develop a plan to guide its detention expansion by Aug. 31, 2027, but that may be too late to prevent more waste, the report said.
In the meantime, ICE appears to be pursuing increasingly improvised strategies to expand its enforcement capacity — with mobile detention in Pennsylvania as the latest example.
The development underscores the urgency for anyone with immigration-related concerns to consult with qualified legal counsel. As enforcement strategies evolve rapidly and often with minimal public notice, staying informed and legally prepared is more critical than ever.
Clinch Law Firm will continue to monitor developments in ICE's detention expansion and provide updates as new information becomes available.