(NewsNation) — Following the fast-tracked launch of Florida’s “Alligator Alcatraz” migrant detention facility, multiple states have expressed interest in creating their own.
A newly announced center in West Texas is shaping up to be the nation’s largest, with the U.S. Department of Defense on Monday allocating more than $230 million to the construction of a 5,000-bed camp at Fort Bliss.
The DOD predicts the facility, built by Virginia-based Acquisition Logistics LLC, will be up and running near the U.S.-Mexico border by Sept. 30, 2027.
Earlier this month, President Donald Trump signed his so-called “big, beautiful bill” into law, effectively setting aside $170 billion for border and immigration enforcement — with $45 billion allocated for detention.
Gil Barndollar, defense priorities foundation senior fellow, said hosting a detention center at a military installment is a “slippery slope.”
“Are we repurposing the U.S. military – and especially the land forces, primarily the Army and to a secondary extent the Marine Corps – as a border security force?” Barndollar said. “We haven’t done that in any meaningful way in well over a century.”
There are still plenty of questions about this new massive immigrant detention center, including whether soldiers from the base will assist with operations and whether the desert conditions will pose a problem for detainees.
Other migrant detention centers are expected to pop up nationwide amid pushes from Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who said she wants Florida’s Everglades-based camp to serve as a blueprint for others.
Without confirming that they have been contacted about building facilities, spokespersons for governors in South Carolina, Mississippi and Texas have told NewsNation they are ready to assist in President Donald Trump’s expanding immigration enforcement plans.
NewsNation’s Jeff Arnold and Anna Kutz contributed to this report.