California Democrats Ask Kristi Noem Not to Reopen FCI Dublin as an Immigration Jail

Three California Democrats are speaking out against the idea that the Trump administration could turn a shuttered women’s prison in Alameda County into a new immigration detention facility.

Sens. Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff and East Bay Rep. Mark DeSaulnier, whose district includes the former Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, sent a letter late Tuesday to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem voicing strong opposition to repurposing the facility as an immigration jail and asking pointed questions about whether there are plans in the works.

Though they did not cite specific new evidence that DHS is moving to open the facility, the members expressed a mounting sense of urgency to block the expansion of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention at a time when in-custody deaths are spiking, and watchdog groups and state officials have described conditions as “alarming” and “dangerous.”

Padilla and Schiff recently visited the California City Detention Facility, a privately run operation that ICE opened in late August, and said they spoke to detainees who described inadequate medical and mental health care.

Padilla told KQED on Tuesday he believes conditions there and in other facilities across the country are “deplorable.”

“DHS has no business expanding their detention capacity while the currently operating detention facilities have been so problematic,” Padilla said Tuesday. “A federal judge recently ordered DHS and the operators to comply with the minimum standards. We’re talking about basic things like clean water, like timely medical attention. A federal judge shouldn’t have to require this of an administration. It’s the law.”

ICE and DHS did not respond to KQED’s request for comment. But ICE has previously denied that conditions in detention are insufficient.

“Ensuring the safety, security, and well-being of individuals in our custody is a top priority at ICE,” spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said in a recent statement. “ICE has higher detention standards than most U.S. prisons that hold actual U.S. citizens.”

In December, the Dublin City Council voted unanimously to oppose reopening the shuttered prison for any purpose, including as an immigration jail. FCI Dublin closed in scandal in 2024 amid allegations of rampant sexual assault and mistreatment of inmates by staff. The facility also reportedly has serious infrastructure problems, including asbestos and mold.

Following reports that ICE officials had toured the facility last February, community members rallied against a potential pivot and urged local officials to take preemptive measures.

In the letter to Noem, the lawmakers said the Dublin prison “is not suitable to be reopened for any purpose and would endanger the lives of both detainees and staff.”

They went on: “Although [Federal Bureau of Prisons] Director William K. Marshall III reportedly guaranteed that there are no plans to transfer use of FCI Dublin’s facilities to ICE, President Trump’s mass deportation agenda coupled with reporting that indicates ICE’s interest in the facility have left us gravely concerned that this facility could be utilized to detain individuals in unsafe conditions.”

They asked Noem to detail whether ICE is considering — or has considered — using the prison for immigration detention, and whether it has done a cost analysis, toured the site or received briefings on reopening requirements.

At the time of the Dublin City Council vote in December, DHS told KQED it had “nothing to announce about new detention facilities.” But the federal Bureau of Prisons, which owns the property, told the council that it plans to turn the Dublin facility over to the U.S. General Services Administration, which handles federal real estate, because the property is too expensive to keep up.

Community advocates said at the time they feared that could be the first step in handing the property over to ICE or a private prison company to run it as an immigration detention center.

Padilla told KQED his concern is heightened because DHS has not been transparent in how it is spending the unprecedented infusion of funds it received in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act last summer.

He said Noem refused to testify last year before the Senate Judiciary Committee, of which he and Schiff are members, as part of Congress’s regular oversight of DHS.

“They’ve been anything but transparent and forthcoming,” Padilla said Tuesday. “When Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, the chairman of the Judiciary committee, complains that she has not accepted his invitations to come before the committee, that just tells you how afraid they are of oversight and having to answer for their conduct.”

Grassley’s office recently announced that Noem would appear before the committee on March 3.

The Democrats’ letter comes at a time when ICE is rapidly expanding detention, holding a record of roughly 70,000 people in immigration jails, up from about 39,000 when President Donald Trump took office.

In recent months, ICE has bought warehouses to turn them into “mega” detention centers, has opened a massive tent camp on the Fort Bliss U.S. Army base, near El Paso, Texas, and has expanded contracts with private prison companies, such as CoreCivic, the operator of the California City facility.

All of that has been facilitated by a $45 billion, four-year appropriation in last summer’s reconciliation bill, which effectively quadrupled ICE’s annual detention budget.

Meanwhile, Congressional Democrats have refused to fund a regular budget appropriation for DHS, leading to a partial shutdown last week, without reforms to how ICE and Customs and Border Protection agents carry out immigration enforcement, such as wearing body cameras and not wearing masks.

Padilla also sent a separate letter to Noem on Tuesday, along with 20 other Senate Democrats, raising alarms over the steep increase in deaths in ICE detention — including 32 deaths in 2025, a two-decade record, and six so far this year.