Tlaib Introduces Bill to Stop ICE’s Warehouse Detention Prisons

Resources / Press Share on Tlaib Introduces Bill to Stop ICE’s Warehouse Detention Prisons Apr 23, 2026 Justice for All Press WATCH: full press conference here . WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (MI-12) introduced the Ban Warehouse Detention Act , which would prohibit the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), from establishing, operating, expanding, converting, or renovating any warehouse or similar building or structure for the purposes of detaining people. The bill would also prevent the administration from establishing any new immigrant detention models. “From Romulus to cities across the country, we do not want ICE cages in our communities. ICE and CBP are murdering people in the streets, tearing families apart, abducting our neighbors, and locking them in cages. Now they are attempting to buy and convert warehouses across our country into massive prison camps to expand their operations, despite strong local opposition in communities like mine,” said Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib. “This will only increase the serious human rights abuses and trauma on immigrant families including medical neglect, inhumane conditions, and rising deaths. The Ban Warehouse Detention Act would stop this expansion by prohibiting the use of warehouses for immigration detention.” “For the profiteers and private interests, detention is just another money-making venture. Even while posting record profits, Trump and his greedy private prison campaign donors want more. Trump’s mass deportation campaign and the private detention, camps, and warehouses Republicans are using their power to establish are just another way to profit from our pain,” said Congresswoman Delia Ramirez. “Since its inception, immigration detention has been DEHUMANIZING and DEADLY. With more than 47 deaths in immigration detention in the last 15 months, we say NOT ONE MORE. We must reclaim our dignity, restore due process, and end detention in all its forms. That is why I introduced the Melt ICE Act, and why I am proud to stand with Congresswoman Tlaib and Detention Watch Network in the introduction of the Ban Warehouse Detention Act.” “We are all painfully aware of the brutality, and frankly criminality, of DHS’s detention practices. The only conversation we should be having is how to dismantle DHS’s cruel and immoral detention-industrial complex,” said Congressman Jesús “Chuy” García. “Human beings do not belong in warehouses. Local communities do not want these torture factories in their backyards. From Arizona to New Hampshire, even Republican local elected officials oppose these warehouses. Not one penny of our tax dollars should be going towards these massive detention centers.” ICE is actively scouting, purchasing, and planning to convert approximately 23 warehouses nationwide into new immigration detention and processing facilities. If enacted, ICE’s warehouse plan would rapidly increase detention capacity to 92,600, signaling a massive expansion of detention capacity and the normalization of large-scale confinement. At some sites, ICE is reportedly planning on detaining people as soon as this month. Confining people in large-scale, makeshift warehouse detention will exponentially increase the likelihood for abuse and death in ICE custody, as ICE cuts people off from their loved ones and support networks, and subjects them to conditions that are meant for storing products, not people. Given the already widespread due process and human rights violations occurring at the hands of ICE, it is certain that this historic expansion will result in an increase in unlawful arrests, violations of people’s due process rights, widespread family separations, disease outbreaks in facilities, and preventable deaths due to medical negligence. Like communities across the country, Michiganders are fighting to prevent DHS from converting a warehouse in Romulus into a mass detention facility. Local residents, alongside the Coalition to Shut the Camps and No Detention Centers in Michigan, have vocally opposed the opening of such a site, and the State of Michigan and the City of Romulus have filed a lawsuit to block the facility, particularly noting the immense harm it would bring to surrounding communities. The Ban Warehouse Detention Act is cosponsored by Reps. Joaquin Castro (TX-20), Yvette Clarke (NY-09), Danny Davis (IL-07), Jesús “Chuy” García (IL-04), Sylvia Garcia (TX-29), Dan Goldman (NY-10), Al Green (TX-09), Adelita Grijalva (AZ-07), Eleanor Holmes Norton (DC), April McClain Delaney (MD-06), Kelly Morrison (MN-03), Delia Ramirez (IL-03), Andrea Salinas (OR-06), and Shri Thanedar (MI-13). This legislation was drafted in partnership with Detention Watch Network and is endorsed by Acacia Center for Justice , Adhikaar for Human Rights & Social Justice, Alianza Nacional de Campesinos, American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), Angelica Village, Arab American Heritage Council (AAHC), Asian Americans