While much of the outrage over the rising number of immigration detention facilities is focused on Florida’s “Alligator Alcatraz,” Georgia is quietly working on building the largest ICE facility in the country, thanks to the passage of President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill.”
Charlton County, located 10 miles from the Florida border and 274 miles south of Atlanta, approved a nearly $50 million agreement with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency in June to expand the Folkston ICE Processing Center from 1,100 detainees to nearly 3,000. The plans incorporate the shuttered D. Ray James Correctional Facility into the existing footprint.
Trump’s budget allocates $45 billion for ICE detention centers through the end of September 2029.
Folkston, a private prison run by The GEO Group, is not without considerable problems.
According to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, in 2022, the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of the Inspector General published the results of a 2021 inspection of the Folkston detention center, citing “unsanitary and dilapidated” facilities, with water leaks, mold and debris in the ventilation system, insect infestations, lack of access to hot showers, inoperable toilets, and no hot meals.
“Folkston did not meet standards for facility conditions, medical care, grievances, segregation, staff-detainee communications, and handling of detainee property,” the report read. “We identified violations that compromised the health, safety, and rights of detainees.”
Last year, Jaspal Singh, an Indian national, died after spending nine months in detention at Folkston. He was 57.
“We are heartbroken by Mr. Singh’s passing while he was confined in this abusive and poorly managed facility that has been violating immigrants’ human rights since ICE began detaining people there in 2017,” said Meredyth Yoon, litigation director for Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta, in a statement calling for the facility’s closure.
U.S. Rep. Earl L. “Buddy” Carter, R-Georgia, has heralded the new detention facility as a boon for Charlton County’s economy, with the creation of 400 jobs and additional water and sewer revenue.
Read More: Amid ICE Sweeps and Travel Bans, Here’s How to Support Black Immigrants in Atlanta
Against the backdrop of the Georgia expansion are growing fears within Atlanta’s immigrant community that deportation efforts without due process will increase.
Pew Research estimates around 200,000 Black immigrants, mostly from Jamaica, Haiti, and Nigeria, call metro Atlanta home.
Capital B Atlanta spoke with Nana Gyamfi, executive director for The Black Alliance for Just Immigration, in June about why Black immigrants especially need to be on alert. She said blackness adds another critical level to the type of profiling that can lead to arrest by ICE officers
“What we know from the data, as well as anecdotal experiences, is that most law enforcement interactions with Black immigrants begin as racial profiling that then goes down another road when the officer hears an accent or realizes there is a language barrier,” Gyamfi said. “As a result, Black migrants are detained, deported and held in solitary confinement at a disproportionately higher rate.”
Trump’s travel ban adds another layer of concern: Eight out of 12 banned countries — and three out of the seven partially banned countries — are Black or African.
Read More: After Morehouse Grad Detained by ICE, HBCU Community Sounds Alarm
“Even though most people are focused on the Muslim element, the face of the ban is really a Black face,” Gyamfi said.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp has already been ramping up efforts in the state to support Trump’s immigration. In March, he announced that the Georgia Department of Public Safety had requested ICE train 1,100 officers “to better assist in identifying and apprehending illegal aliens who pose a risk to public safety in the state.”
Then in May, Kemp signed House Bill 1105, requiring sheriffs to hold suspects believed to be in the country illegally if they are wanted by ICE. None of the sheriffs in metro Atlanta’s five core counties are reportedly signed up to participate.
The contract for the new Charlton County facility awaits approval by the Department of Government Efficiency.
Staff writer Madeline Thigpen contributed to this report.
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