ICE to close Calif. facility able to hold 2,000 illegal immigrants amid ongoing crisis: sources

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EXCLUSIVE: Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is expected to close down a detention facility in Adelanto, Calif., that can house nearly 2,000 illegal immigrant inmates but has been nearly empty for years due to a COVID-era court order, multiple sources familiar with the matter tell Fox News Digital -- just as the administration is calling for more detention beds for the agency.

ICE was blocked by a September 2020 court order from sending more detainees to the privately-operated facility after a lawsuit demanding fewer detainees due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which was then near its peak. 

But that order is still in place, despite the COVID-19 emergency declaration having ended earlier this year and similar facilities -- including in the area -- having expanded capacity. While able to house nearly 2,000 detainees, only a handful of immigrants live there.  

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Rep. Jay Obernolte, R-Calif., has led the charge to expand the facility’s intake, urging both ICE and recently the DOJ, urging them to pursue "all available avenues" to lift the prohibition on more detainees.

"At a time when our communities are suffering historic levels of illegal immigrants overwhelming our social services safety nets and our local law enforcement authorities to the point that they have been forced to use taxpayer resources to hold them in hotels, prisons and other detention housing alternative, it is unacceptable that the Adelanto facility has been so underutilized," he said in a letter this week.

In a statement to Fox News Digital, ICE said it does not comment on "ongoing or pending litigation or its outcome."

A guard escorts an immigrant detainee from his segregation cell back into the general population at the Adelanto Detention Facility on November 15, 2013 in Adelanto, California. 

"As part of routine strategic operational planning, ICE continually assesses various factors when contemplating whether to enter new contracts for facilities or terminate existing facility contracts. Discussions with detention providers, including state and local partners, are critical to ICE’s custody management mission and occur on a regular basis," aspokesperson said.

"Significant agency changes/updates are publicly announced when operationalized.  ICE continuously reviews and enhances civil detention operations to ensure noncitizens are treated humanely, protected from harm, provided appropriate medical and mental health care, and receive the rights and protections to which they are entitled," they said. " ICE takes its commitment to promoting safe, secure, humane environments for those in our custody very seriously."

The closing --expected imminently, sources said -- is expected to impact more than 300 workers who currently staff the facility. The National Federation of Federal Employees recently warned of a "devastating" impact on workers if the facility were to close, particularly before Christmas. 

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It’s the latest move by the Biden administration to reduce the use of private immigration detention facilities -- which then-candidate Biden promised to do in 2020.  ICE has ended family detention and has closed multiple facilities, but liberal civil rights groups have called for more closures, including dozens of groups calling for such moves along with ICE funding cuts in November last year. 

But, facing an ongoing and historic migrant crisis at the southern border, more recently the administration has been appealing to Congress for more funding -- including for thousands more ICE beds "to allow DHS to process more recent border crossers on expedited timelines when we see increased encounters and swiftly remove those without a legal basis to stay in the country."

Homeland Security Committee Chair Mark Green, in a statement to Fox News Digital, said the move in Adelanto was "enforcement malpractice."

"At the same time Secretary Mayorkas and President Biden are asking Congress to fund new detention beds, they’re considering closing a state-of-the-art facility that offers almost 2,000 beds," he said, before saying the administration’s math "simply doesn’t add up." 

" It just goes to show that the Biden administration’s talk about immigration enforcement is cheap – its actions tell the real story," he said.

The chairman, who has been investigating the Biden administration’s handling of the migrant crisis, said that even if Congress granted money for the beds, "they won’t be used properly" and would instead be used as "spillover capacity for overwhelmed Border Patrol facilities instead of for detaining and removing illegal aliens."

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RJ Hauman, president of the National Immigration Center for Enforcement (NICE) and a visiting adviser at The Heritage Foundation, called the looming closure an "abdication of duty" that will put American communities at risk and urged Republicans to take a harder line on the matter in talks over funding. 

"Millions of unvetted illegal immigrants are flooding across our border and Joe Biden’s response is to shut down fully-funded ICE detention facilities at the urging of open borders groups," he said. "Biden and [Mayorkas] clearly have no intention of enforcing the law — this reckless decision should serve as the last straw for Republican lawmakers flirting with the idea of more money and minor policy changes."

There were more than 2.4 million migrant encounters at the southern border in FY 24 alone, and more than 240,000 encounters in October. The administration overall has asked for $14 billion in more funding for border operations, which include fentanyl detection and migrant care, as well as calling for Congress to pass a comprehensive immigration reform bill that the administration released on day one in office.

Fox News' Bill Melugin contributed to this report.