The ICE Out of Dublin Coalition strongly opposes the potential reopening of California City Correctional Facility—now at risk of becoming the largest immigrant detention center in California—as well as any other decommissioned site vulnerable to ICE takeover. As the Trump regime seeks to expand detention capacity, we stand in solidarity with immigrant communities, survivors of state violence, and advocates across California and the nation to reject the spread of ICE detention.

Like FCI Dublin, California City Correctional Facility is also a former prison. These facilities represent a larger, troubling pattern of closed prisons sitting in ‘warm shutdown’ mode becoming vulnerable to ICE repurposing. Instead of cost savings from these facilities being invested in local communities, these facilities sit empty and idle yet are maintained and ready for ICE appropriation. Failure to permanently shutter these closed facilities and instead use them to expand immigrant detention across California creates grave dangers for our communities.

Detention Centers Threaten Public Safety

Research has shown that areas with immigration detention centers are correlated with higher rates of ICE activities and arrests. Amidst escalated ICE raids in Southern California, a detention center in California City risks increasing arrests not only in Kern County but in the surrounding Inland Empire and neighboring Los Angeles, Orange, and San Diego Counties. A detention center in Dublin would increase risks for immigrant communities throughout the Bay Area and Northern California at large. More ICE detention means more separated families.

Detention Centers Offer False Promises of Economic Stability

Like prisons, detention centers fail to offer long-term economic sustainability. McFarland and Adelanto are prime examples of cities sold the false promise of jobs and revenue spurred by detention centers. In 2020, while its two detention facilities were open, McFarland had a poverty rate three times the national average and an unemployment rate that is more than twice the national average. The people of California City and Dublin deserve real economic solutions that let people thrive, not false ones that rely on kidnapping and caging our communities.

Detention Centers Are Not Replacements for Prisons

FCI Dublin and California City Correctional Facility closed for good reason. While it was a state prison, California City Correctional Facility was one of 18 prisons identified in a report by the Ella Baker Center as particularly vulnerable to climate hazards. California City Correctional Facility was specifically cited for extreme heat. Recommendations in the report call on the state to significantly reduce the incarcerated population, create rapid release policies to be used in cases of emergency, and close prisons vulnerable to climate hazards. FCI Dublin was closed in 2024 due to powerful survivor-led organizing following years of horrific staff sexual abuse, retaliation, and medical neglect. Survivors also uncovered inhumane and unsafe physical conditions at the facility, including mold, asbestos, and crumbling infrastructure. Prior to shutdown, non-US citizens incarcerated in FCI Dublin were specifically preyed upon by staff because of their immigration status and pending deportation case. Closed prisons must stay closed. Handing over facilities known for harms to ICE, an agency with a well-documented history of abuse, is a recipe for disaster.

Reopening these closed prisons would be a devastating back pedal in California’s progress to close toxic institutions in pursuit of a healthier state. We call on local, state, and federal officials and elected representatives to use every legal and policy means to permanently close FCI Dublin, California City Correctional Facility, and all state prisons and other facilities currently in ‘warm shutdown’ and prevent their reopening as ICE detention centers.