A proposed ICE detention center in Arizona will need to house 775 people at the 500-bed lockup in order to keep up with the skyrocketing number of migrants and asylum-seekers being arrested amid President Trump’s mass deportation crackdown, according to federal procurement documents reviewed by The Independent.
“DHS/ICE needs to increase bed capacity to meet the administration’s interior enforcement and border decompression goals,” states a contracting notice the agency issued Wednesday. “This contract supports the ICE ERO Phoenix Field Office with the provision of comprehensive detention services for two years.”
The former Arizona State Prison-Marana, later renamed the Marana Community Correctional Treatment Facility and shuttered in December 2023, is soon set to reopen as a privately-run immigration lockup in the face of intense community opposition.
A performance work statement attached to the notice says the complex, located about 20 miles northwest of Tucson, “shall house approximately 513 male detainees of all security levels.”
However, the notice itself – announcing ICE’s intent to award a no-bid contract to run the facility to the Utah-based Management & Training Corporation, which initially built the prison and bought it back from the government last year – reveals that number is expected to shoot up by more than 50 percent.
“The facility must have a capacity of up to 775 detainees, while also providing guards, meals, medical care, and transportation services,” the notice states. “… These services are required to support ERO’s mission to safely detain illegal aliens while they await trial or deportation.”
“ERO” is ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations arm. The ICE notice does not say how space will be made for 262 additional detainees.
The documents begin to answer, in a piecemeal fashion, certain aspects of open questions about the Marana facility that prompted a February 19 letter from U.S. Reps. Adelita Grijalva, Greg Stanton, and Yassamin Ansari to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and ICE Director Todd Lyons, requesting information on, among other things, how many people the lockup would hold. It lambasted immigration officials for a “lack of transparency” the three legislators described as “unacceptable.”
The notice does not specify a date when the Marana facility will open; the notice remains active until March 13.
An MTC spokeswoman told The Independent that the contract has yet to be formally awarded to the company, and that “no final agreement has been made.”
“If an agreement is finalized, our focus will remain on restoring good local jobs, supporting the Marana economy, and operating the facility with high standards of safety, professionalism, and dignity,” the spokeswoman said, declining to provide further information about capacity or an expected opening.
An ICE spokesperson did not respond Thursday to a request for comment.
The Marana facility was opened in October 1994 as the state’s first private prison. In 2013, Arizona bought the facility for $150,000, closing it a decade later following a cost-benefit analysis that found it would be cheaper to house Marana’s dwindling inmate population elsewhere.
A bill introduced last year by Sen. John Kavanagh, a conservative Republican, would have leased the prison to the federal government for $1 a year, but failed. Instead, MTC, which operates multiple facilities in various states, bought it back from the State of Arizona in the spring of 2025, for $15 million.
The ever-expanding ICE dragnet, paid for with an eye-popping $45 billion earmarked for ICE detention in the GOP’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” has swept up tens of thousands of people, most of whom have never been convicted of a crime, according to the nonprofit, nonpartisan American Immigration Council. When Trump took office in January 2025, about 40,000 were being held in ICE detention centers on civil immigration charges. A year later, ICE’s detainee population has grown to a record 73,000, an increase of more than 75 percent.
“We have experienced growth over the past few years with amazing new restaurants and businesses coming to Marana,” reads a Change.org petition circulated by a group called Pima Resists ICE. “Most recently, we have seen the addition of a beautiful Marana Aquatic and Recreation Center and a brand-new shopping center. Right down the road from these two new thriving spaces, [MTC] is planning to open an ICE Detention Center. If this is allowed to happen, all the progress we have made as a community would be in danger.”
For its part, ICE says in its Wednesday notice that having a detention center in Marana “is essential for ERO to accomplish its apprehension and detention, and removal mission in the most cost efficient and timely manner.”
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ICE’s performance work statement says the Marana facility “shall provide… easy access to legal services; abundant natural light throughout the facility; ample indoor and outdoor recreation that allows for vigorous aerobic exercise; [and] cafeteria style meal service or satellite feeding.” It will also have private areas for attorney-client visits, a law library, and a dedicated space for religious services. Detainees will be afforded “enhanced, but controlled freedom of movement (although the manner and degree of implementation may vary based on security levels),” the document states.
“The contractor does not have a right of refusal and shall take all referrals from ICE,” it adds.
It will have office space sufficient for at least 31 ICE employees, to include 29 offices, two workstations, an employee break room, a gym/exercise room with separate showers and locker rooms for male and female staff, a copier/fax/printer/shredder area, a firearms locker, and men’s and women’s restrooms, which the performance work statement says are “not used/shared with aliens.”
No fewer than 40 parking spaces will be set aside for ICE, and MTC must provide a parking lot specifically for visitors, as well, according to the document .
“Street parking for ICE visitors is not acceptable,” it states.
Marana, the town, is home to more than 63,000 residents, many of whom stand firmly against reopening the disused prison to incarcerate immigrants.
“Number 1, it’s morally objectionable,” Marana resident Tom Flynn told The Guardian in November 2025. “Number 2, it’s a detriment to the overall economy… It depresses home values. And it’s so obviously politically driven.”
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Yet, as Marana Town Manager Terry Rozema told Tucson Weekly, there is little recourse for anyone hoping to stop ICE from moving forward with its plans.
“You can’t simply change someone’s zoning designation without following a formal legal process,” Rozema said. “These are federal agents operating under federal jurisdiction… We do not have authority over their policies, including operational procedures.”
In 2010, a riot broke out at the Marana facility, on MTC’s watch, that injured 12 inmates and a staff member, and required a 20-person special response team from a nearby state prison to stop it.
Five years later, MTC would lose its contracts with the State of Arizona following a prison riot at a facility it operated in Kingman, which caused extensive property damage and injured 16 people. Sources told The Arizona Republic that the violence was touched off by “weeks of guards mistreating inmates.”
As of Wednesday, Marana Town Councilman Patrick Cavanaugh told Arizona Public Media that he was still “crossing his fingers” that immigration detention center there would not open, after all.
“Marana is a beautiful community for families, for businesses,” Cavanaugh said. “We’ve all heard it from both sides here. Who would logically want to have an ICE detention center in this town?”
