Inside ICE’s Plan to Build Detention ‘Mega Centers’ episode artwork

EPISODE · Jan 20, 2026 · 19 MIN

Inside ICE’s Plan to Build Detention ‘Mega Centers’

from Big Take · host Bloomberg and iHeartPodcasts

ICE has been open about its aggressive detention and deportation targets. And now, the agency has its sights set on a new kind of facility to house the people it arrests: converted warehouses that could detain 5,000 or more people. On today’s Big Take podcast, Bloomberg reporters Fola Akinnibi and Sophie Alexander take host Sarah Holder inside their team’s reporting on the agency’s latest push to expand its detention capacity, the lucrative government contracts that companies are vying for and mounting concerns around safety for detainees. Read more:  ICE Plans Detention Expansion With Deal to Design ‘Mega Centers’ Companies With No Detention Experience Want to Run Trump’s ICE Camps Further listening: Why Small Towns Are Hooked on ICE Detention Hosted by Sarah Holder; Produced by Julia Press; Reported by Sophie Alexander and Fola Akinnibi; Edited by Aaron Edwards; Fact-checking by Rachael Lewis-Krisky and David Fox; Engineering by Katie McMurran; Senior Producer: Naomi Shavin; Deputy Executive Producer: Julia Weaver. Executive Producer: Nicole Beemsterboer.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode metadata supplied by the publisher feed · Published Jan 20, 2026

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Inside ICE’s Plan to Build Detention ‘Mega Centers’

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