Trump’s $45 billion expansion of immigrant detention sites faces pushback

With tensions high over federal immigration enforcement, some state and local officials are pushing back against the Trump administration’s attempts to house thousands of detained immigrants in jails, converted warehouses and privately run facilities in their communities. Federal officials have been scouting cities and counties across the U.S. for places to hold immigrants as they roll out a massive $45 billion expansion of detention facilities financed by President Donald Trump’s recent tax-cutting law. The fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by immigration enforcement officers in Minneapolis have amplified an already intense spotlight on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, increasing scrutiny of its plans for new detention sites. A proposed ICE facility just north of Richmond, Virginia, drew hundreds of people last week to a tense public hearing of the Hanover County Board of Supervisors. “You want what’s happening in Minnesota to go down in our own backyard? Build that detention center here, and that’s exactly what will happen,” resident Kimberly Matthews told

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