Written by Wendy Fry, CalMatters
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is expanding its operations in California’s Central Valley with the launch of a new 700-bed detention center, operated by the for-profit prison company GEO Group. Advocates report that transfers of immigration detainees to the McFarland facility began last week.
The facility, referred to as the Central Valley Annex, marks an increase in the number of active detention centers in California, bringing the total to eight—up from six in early 2025. All of these facilities are run by private companies and collectively offer around 10,000 beds for detainees.
The current month saw the opening of two prominent detention centers initiated under the Trump administration, previously used as private prisons until California’s prison population declined sufficiently for the Newsom administration to terminate existing contracts. Recent statistics from DetentionReports.com indicate that the average number of individuals held in California’s immigration detention facilities has surged to approximately 5,337—representing a staggering 72% increase from the average of 3,104 in April 2025.
Located in Kern County, the Central Valley Annex complements the nearby Golden State Annex and has an average population of 565 detainees. Concerns persist over whether GEO has secured the necessary conditional use permit or business license from the City of McFarland for housing immigrants at this new facility.
Immigrant advocacy groups expressed frustration at having been denied the opportunity to voice their concerns during a public hearing prior to the facility’s operational launch. Edwin Carmona Cruz, an anti-ICE detention advocate, condemned the new annex, emphasizing, “We don’t want to see another ICE detention center built in California or anywhere else.”
Until 2020, GEO Group operated a private prison complex in McFarland under the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Governor Gavin Newsom has committed to ending these contracts, reflecting longstanding community calls to close the facility. In 2019, California Democrats attempted to thwart GEO Group’s transition of the site into an immigrant detention center by passing legislation banning that use. Shortly before the law took effect, ICE negotiated a 15-year contract valued at $1.5 billion with GEO for two facilities in McFarland and another in Bakersfield. A federal court subsequently ruled the state law unconstitutional, asserting federal authority to enforce immigration law.
California’s Newest Detention Center
In 2025, CoreCivic, another private prison operator, opened a 2,560-bed immigrant detention center at a decommissioned state prison in California City, establishing the largest ICE detention facility in the state. This facility began detaining immigrants without proper documentation, provoking legal challenges and community resistance.
According to GEO Group, the newly launched Central Valley Annex is accredited by the American Correctional Association and the American Board of Correctional Health Care and previously housed U.S. Marshals Service detainees. Currently, it remains unclear if the facility is accommodating both federal marshals and immigrants.
The unprecedented rise in detainees at ICE facilities nationwide is facilitated by an influx of $45 billion allocated through a recently signed spending bill, “One Big Beautiful Bill,” aimed at significantly ramping up the detainment of immigrants in conjunction with a broad deportation strategy. When he took office in 2025, ICE was detaining an average of about 40,000 people daily, with ambitions to escalate to over 100,000.
State Surveillance of Internal Conditions
Edwin Carmona Cruz, co-executive director of the California Immigrant Justice Collaborative, expressed grave concerns for those sent to the Central Valley Annex, fearing they may endure the same abusive and inhumane conditions reported at neighboring facilities. Detainees in the Mesa Verde and Golden State annex facilities have long documented issues such as mistreatment, dangerous living conditions, medical neglect, inadequate compensation for labor, and solitary confinement following incidents of sexual abuse and insufficient nutrition.
A spokesperson for GEO Group, Chris V. Ferreira, previously refuted these allegations, framing them as unfounded claims part of a politically charged campaign against ICE. The company has yet to respond to recent inquiries regarding conditions in their facilities.
Carmona Cruz highlighted the personal ramifications of these detentions: “It’s our community members, our neighbors, our families who are being sent there.” He added that ICE and GEO Group fall short of meeting the humanitarian needs of those detained, stating, “ICE detention is not only unjust and unnecessary, it is deadly.” Since President Trump’s administration began, nearly 50 people have died in ICE custody, raising serious alarms about the ongoing situation.
Additionally, a report released last year by the California Attorney General’s Office expressed concerns about medical care within ICE facilities. At the time, California operated six detention centers, underscoring the urgency for oversight in these environments as the situation evolves.
CalMatters reporters Sergio Olmos and Nigel Duara contributed to this report. This article, originally published by CalMatters, is republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License.
